French forger Vrain Denis-Lucas must have had a golden touch. His customers bought “manuscripts” from all of the following authors:

• Robert Boyle
• Isaac Newton
• Blaise Pascal
• Cleopatra
• Judas Iscariot
• Pontius Pilate
• Joan of Arc
• Cicero
• Dante Alighieri

… even though all of them were written in contemporary French. All told, Denis-Lucas sold 27,000 manuscripts before the French Academy of Science realized something was wrong. He spent two years in prison and then disappeared.