Is there anything wrong with this coin? I wasn't sure so I didn't go in 'big' and I wound up missing this 'Bulbinus' by 50 cents. What do you think?
When not sure, walk away. Did you look at the fake reports of the type? http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/thumbnails.php Search: Balbinus victory
@dougsmit I did look there, but I didn't find anything similar. My 'hesitation' comes from 'lack of knowledge' not from an 'abundance of knowledge', and (at my age) spending money usually makes me 'fearful'. I can't, but I was wondering if anyone else could find anything wrong with the coin, so I wouldn't feel so bad at 'missing' it.
Unsure, just pass. Even if it turned out to be real later on, lick the wound and move on. At least you'd know you avoided what may be a fake at the time. Other coins will pop up.
This appears to be an obvious fake, the style is completely wrong. My question is, how could you bid on a coin like this unless you know the coin or you know the seller? How much did this end up selling for?
@Volodya My bid was $30 and it sold for $30.50. (I figured that $30 was enough to bid without any 'certainty of legitimacy'.)
Lets get real here. A genuine Balbinus denarius in EF with poor centering and blotchy tone is not a $30 item. Thousands of people look at eBay. If an even slightly adventurous dealer saw it on eBay he would have bid over $31 and would sell it to someone who knew less than you and suspected nothing. A coin that strikes everyone as even 'possibly' real would have hit $300+. You got lucky. We are wasting our time here over and over again unless there is a good answer to that question.
I'm no expert. Has anyone seen a genuine Balbinus denarius this far off center? I have no but does that mean anything? Same question for G 1 & 2, Pupienus and G3 Caesar. Who threw out the bad strikes? Was it the mintmasters in 238 or dealers in the last 100 years who saw no market for slightly defective rarities?
A 30 second look at the Forvm fake reports would identify this reverse die as having been created by Lipanoff. There are several with a matching reverse dies in silver and gold there. What I find interesting is that the obverse is new to me and isn't the usual Lipanoff obverse die. It looks more like the Slavey obverse.
The fake dirt, toning and scrapes go a long way trying to cover things up on the obverse but that Victory reverse is an instant giveaway, yuck! No Victory reverse but here's my example proclaiming Balbinus and Pupienus BFF's.
