All Trajan, all day

Search CNG's archive with "red deposits" keywords, you will see plenty of examples

 

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you think it's totally fake or just a little "improved"?

 

I don't think it's fake, but I'm not 100% sure it's genuine...

 

At first glance i didn't like the style of the reverse. I am still wondering if the coin might be authentic but stripped, tooled, and repatinated. Just something about the size of the wings, the depiction of the face, etc. that is making my eye uneasy. That is all I have though, an uneasiness.

 

I'm liking this....there is space between fake and genuine!

 

JB, do you have this coin in hand? Can you check the edges for any trace of a seam?

 

edges are normal. I just put it out on the FORVMs discussion board.....jee-sus that site is hard to use. If you have time see if I did it correctly? I would be most appreciative.

 

I'm jaseifert over there. My real name is John, also.

 

You also could send it to David Sear for authentification. Sometimes easier when you can see and feel the thing "in the flesh"... Pics have their limits.

 

Tough call on this one. I'm going to go with real, but stripped of patina. There's nothing in the style that's overtly un-Roman. The fabric is odd, but the reason is obvious - the coin was harshly cleaned and re-patinated with a copper darkener. The coin might have been so heavily encrusted that the cleaner had no choice. You can see the bare bronze showing in several places, and the toning looks exactly like what you get from a darkener - I know, I've used copper darkeners to touch up spots on coins after I've dug out some BD.

 

You did it right. We'll see what others have to say. I have my fingers crossed for ya.

 

Well, you got a thumbs-up from Curtis Clay. It doesn't get much more authoritative than that.

Curtis Clay

 

Jeez-Louise....he's the real deal. Where is this thumbs up! I spazz out every time I go to that site. It's blurring from so much stuff.

 

I tend to think this is a genuine AE, although the patina doesn't look like most AEs that I own.

Here's some of my thought process / analysis on this coin:

Obverse: The legends look genuine and not tooled, showing typical wear patterns without the sharp edges that tooling would create in an effort to make them clearer. Similarly, the portrait looks normally worn. I can't comment on style since I haven't seen enough Trajan AE portraits. There is clearly some smoothing in the field surrounding the portrait but this normal and doesn't rise to the level of tooling. The scratches in front of the portrait (at 3 o'clock) appear to be rough / unskilled cleaning marks.

Reverse: Again, the legends look normally worn. The devices have similarly normal wear although the circumference of the shield containing SPQR appears a bit engraved, but that could also be the result of excessive smoothing to make the shield stand out from the field. The fields are smoothed but not excessively. As with the obverse, I cannot comment on style due to my lack of familiarity with Hadrian AEs.

Depending on what you paid for this coin, you may want to get an expert's opinion on its authenticity. If it's a relatively inexpensive purchase, I wouldn't bother to pay the fee required by an acknowledged expert for a definitive opinion, although you might be able to get an informal assessment for free.

 

That's great news! As John said, Curtis Clay is a very experienced and well-credentialed professional numismatist.

 

With Mr. Idesofmarch01 and Mr. Clay's comment I'm feeling good. I would say I paid enough to be a bit rattled but not enough to go nuts. Oh hell what do I care I paid $300. What would have been most disturbing is that I really like the vendor. He seems straight up to me and he has a Hadrian sestertius that I really want.

Thanks for all your comments. And Thanks to TIF for walking me through the FORVM website jungle.

 

It's not an easy site to navigate, but here's a direct link to your thread...

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=99224.0

 

Great addition! glad it's ok!

 

Remember my tiberius has the same look

 

As it turns out, this coin has the thumbs up from some very experienced and well respected numismatists. I was satisfied with the opinion of Dionysos (Batman), but the others seem to verify his opinion. Congratulations. Now that it has been verified as authentic, man that's a nice coin.