I have this old coin it is quite thick and oblong shaped and appears to be made of metal that turns green with corrosion. I am curious if anyone knows of origin. And the currency type. I took some HD photos and also compared it to the US dime for Size.
Welcome to CoinTalk! It's a tetradrachm struck in Alexandria, Egypt during the Roman years. I can't make out the obverse legend and the portraiture of that time was rather generic. It's going to be in the Claudius II through Constantius range-- probably the later part of that range. I'll give it a closer look tomorrow if someone else hasn't scrutinized it first. By this late period in Roman Egyptian coinage, tetradrachms were small and contained almost no silver.
This is a very late tetradrachm of Alexandria but too far gone for me to ID with certainty to an emperor. I believe I read LA on the reverse which means it could be anyone that had coins in year one. I agree with TIF in it being Claudius II or later.
Thanks for the assistance. I started collecting while living in Japan as a small child around 2nd grade, i found a 1943 1 Franc at the beach. And been collecting since. As for this coin in particular i belive my grandad had given it to me when i was young. I just recently moved back to the US and been looking at my coin collection thats been sitting in storage for the past 8 years.
Welcome to cointalk. That is a cool coin minted in Egypt under the Romans as TIF said. You will find there are many interesting ancient coins for reasonable prices because the ancients made so many. John
What a nice story. I hope you will return here and tell us about rediscovering your collection. I hope you will find this a stimulating forum. — Paul
Yes, a small late third century Alexandrian tetradrachm. Here's one of Maximian, for example. Difficult to pin down with certainty given its state of preservation, but I think it's: Maximian, 1st reign, AD 286-305 Roman billon tetradrachm, 16.2 mm, 7.29 g Egypt, Alexandria, AD 289-290 Obv: A K M A OVA MAΞIMIANOC CЄB, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust, right Rev: Dikaiosyne standing left, holding scales and cornucopiae; L in left field and Є (year 5 = 289/290) in right field Refs: Dattari 5850; Similar to BMCG 2550 and RCV 13345 (different placement of Є).
Wow that looks really close from what i can tell, i know it is pretty worn. Its the only coin in my collection that i couldnt identify. This was very helpful! Thanks everyone
