Alexander III Drachm and Tet

Alexander III AR Drachm. Kolophon mint. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / ALEXANDROU, Zeus enthroned left, holding eagle and sceptre; lion's head and F before throne, pentagram beneath

16.9 mm
4.21 gm

Of course I cannot post my newest silver greek without posting his bigger brother.

Alexander III AR Tetradrachm. Head of Herakles right in lionskin headdress / ALEXANDROU right, BASILEWS below, Zeus seated left, legs crossed, holding eagle in right hand, scepter in left hand; M monogram to left, AY below throne

24.7 mm
16.95 gm

 

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sweet new additions ... I love these Tets

 

and for good measure, a second brother, before I go to bed.

Alexander III AR tetradrachm. Head of Herakles right wearing lion skin, knotted at base of neck / ALEXANDROU, Zeus seated left, legs uncrossed, holding eagle in right hand, sceptre in left; monogram above chair rung, B below

16.83 gm
26 mm


Good night, guys. Sorry if you aren't able to load the page quickly; I didn't compress the images.

 

Nice. One of these days I'm going to splurge and get me one of these.

 

nice alexanders! i like number 2 the best, nice lookin' zeus looks pretty sharp also.

 

I like your 3rd example, but mainly due to the fact that the legs aren't crossed and therefore that indicates that it is a "lifetime" example, is that correct? (I have a later imitative version from Lycia, Phaselian ... but I'd love to get a lifetime example)

once again => congrats

 

I read an investigative report into Price's work on these. That individual said that there are 2 or 3 die examples where BASILEWS is present and the legs are crossed that have been proven to be a lifetime issue. Aside from that author's perspective "proof?," you would be correct. I haven't handled and/or seen enough Alexander tets to even offer an opinion.

 

I've got one of these, it's "Randy grade".



Only jokes people, only jokes.

 

This is, by far, the most common Alex III drachm fake...

 

Maybe it's the original coin that the forgers used to make a mold for the fakes.

 

my advice is (if you buy coin from web site that means 70% possible be FAKE ) iam sorry but i will never buy coin from internet (i only own my coin that i found in my trips)

 

That I would doubt, there are so many of these (they are made of pewter and are consistently underweight, so should be easy to verify). According to Reid Goldsborough, they were distributed by the Newsweek publisher in the 70's.

 

I know most of you believe I take this hobby too seriously but it really bothers me when we fail to make an effort to back up what we say when we yell 'fire' in a theater. In this case I certainly agree that Vlaha's coin is a fake and that Reid posted it on his huge set of pages outing fake and replica Alexanders. Lets give the link so others can benefit from it:
http://alexanderthegreatcoins.reidgold.com/modern_replicas2.html
3/4 down the page
I'm not sure why but Reid separated his fakes into groups so you also have to look here:
http://alexanderthegreatcoins.reidgold.com/modern_forgeries.html
True some were made not to fool but we commonly see 'honest' replicas re-purposed into fakes of deceptive intent. Hardly a month goes by that I don't see an obvious fake 'grandpa found in the war' or 'bought from the guy that found it'. There are certainly places that have at least a 70% fake rate but they are not online.

I'm sure I have some fakes and I'm sure there are fakes online at any given moment but 70% is very high. We can not rely on lists of known fakes (including Reid's excellent one) since the fakers are working overtime to make new junk every day. Fortunately, most fakes are really bad and easily seen to be suspicious. If you are suspicious, just walk away. In all honesty, I see another coin on this page that I would not buy just from gut feeling but I have not been able to find it listed yet so I'm not ready to point the evil finger at it yet. There are coins I buy and coins I don't. There are certain fakes and coins I'd be extremely surprised to find were fake. It is now a bigger part of the hobby than it was a decade to a couple centuries ago. That is why we suggest buying from reputable dealers.

 

Even then, it's very important to research coins independently, especially for the most obvious cases like this one.

For example, I reported the following to the dealer well before the end of the auction and they assured me it would be withdrawn. Still, they sold it for a more than reasonable price...

http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=426623

 

Reputable, knowledgeable and honest?

 

Yes, a few too many adjectives for some of them...

 

It appears that my post was understood, I knew from the time I got it that it was fake, and the guy I got it from gave it to me knew I was fake (in hand it's even more obvious including super ugly casting lines). So it was intended to be a joke.

BTW, the "Randy grade" is a reference to post 36 of this thread:
http://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancient-guys-taking-over-the-world.237765/

Doug, we need every level of intensity, this forum wouldn't be complete without both Steve types and Doug types.

Cheers all!

 

While I still hold onto hope that I'll be more like Steve when I'm his age, today I can say that I consider his taste in coins exceptional or, perhaps, just too much like mine. I do believe that Steve is most responsible for CT World being what it is today and, to me, that is a good thing.

 

I have to completely agree Doug. Steve is a one of a kind, and I count myself lucky to have him for a coin buddy (Steve, if you are reading this, I didn't mean a word of it).

 

It's hard to express sarcasm over text. Eh, vlaha?