I cant put my finger on it but something does not look right about this Roman Provincial, it is a Caligula As from Segobriga Spain. Anyone see any thing that is not right about it ?
My example Caligula (37 - 41 A.D.) AE30 AS SEGOBRIGA, SPAIN O: C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS IMP, laureate head left. R: SEGO BRIGA in wreath. Segobriga Mint 30.5mm 10.1g Burgos 1724
bcuda, Your coin has a much higher relief than the example Mat posted. The coin has a pretty patina & lots of eye appeal .
Coin looks good. I think what you can't put your finger on is that the style of provincial portraits differs from that of imperial ones.
Are you trying to suggest that it's tooled or something? An easy way to settle such a question is to look for either a die match or a very close die. I think this coin is an obverse die match and you can see the exact same style of eye. There are over a hundred examples on ACSearch so it's quite easy to get a feel for the styles normal for the issue and in this case the eye is perfectly fine, that's just how that engraver rendered it.
The First Century Spanish mints did not quite seem up to the skills of the Gallic or Rome mints when it came to portraits so they do seem a bit odd compared to something coming out of those mints. The weight should be between 10 and 11 grams, about the weight of the typical As of the period. There seem to be a number of these on the market right now and I suspect a find of what had been a scarce coin has been uncovered. Yours seems perfectly good to me. I don't know that anyone has been making copies of them and if the price had been right I would have bought it as a decent addition of an emperor somewhat hard to get in nice condition. I think you can have a high confidence in having made a good acquisition.
This is a type that's on my list (though, not really in the top 10), but if a nice, reasonable one jumped up, I'd snag it. Nice catch! I'm wondering if he just meant he personally doesn't like the aesthetic of the eye?
@Justin Lee You're right. I'm not suggesting anything except that I personally don't like the way the eye looks. Looks like a droopy skull-socket to me. Just an opinion. Now watch the disapproval and subtle, and not so subtle ridicule I get for expressing a contrary opinion.
It's a perfectly genuine coin, and a very nice one as well. The Spanish mints had their own distinct unique style which is why they can often look a bit strange if one is unfamiliar. I have always thought this style is perfectly illustrated by the denarii of Galba. Below are two, the first a Spanish Mint, the second from Rome:
The coin is a fake. Don't listen to the experts in this forum. Send it to me and I will gladly take this genuine..... uhm, I meant fake....coin out of your hands no questions asked. Seriously, that's a beautiful OP coin. And it's got really lovely patina too. What's not to love about it.
They run the spectrum but some of the Spanish-made fakes of the Iberian and earlier Roman bronzes are exceptionally well crafted transfer-die forgeries, with complex and convincing patinas and corrosion and dirt superior to anything else I've been able to detect. With the economic woes of the last decade I bet more than a few skilled artisans went Dark-Side to make ends meet. I don't really know Iberian coins and see nothing wrong with this one but have seen fakes with patinas and convincing dirt crust just as good or better. They can be spooky good so be careful, especially on eBay.
