What I would really like is some help with how do I take a picture of this coin so one of you might recognize some detail and point me in the direction of identifying if this is actually even a coin and if so what type. I have spent days trying to figure out how to photo it. microscope camera, phone, regular camera, light no light and even tried the paper and pencil transfer. Nothing has seemed to work. I just do not have enough coin knowledge for something about the coin to point me in the right direction and i have spent countless hours looking at coins on line trying to match anything to something with no luck. I thought the raised part was most likely a bust but seems like the vast majority face the other direction. Thought lion or same creature as on a three or six pence but I just do not know.. Has what appears to be either the letters RMC mid back reverse I'm guessing. I'm totally frustrated that I cant get even get a barely good picture to show what little I can make out. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks Wrexx [Post moved to Ancients per author request; lightly edited to make paragraphs and display attachments full size. ~Mod.]
I initially thought the portrait looked liked Caligula, but what about the Augustus As with the altar reverse? You’d need to rotate the obverse picture counterclockwise by 45 degrees and the reverse one to the right by 45 degrees. Could that say PROVIDENT under there?
Good thinking, @lordmarcovan. Here's an example in my collection: But that might not be it. The OP coin appears to have letters across the square object on the reverse. This object may be an altar or a cippus. It's hard to say.
Corrected myself to say “altar” instead of “temple”. You quoted me mid-edit. It does look like a first-century As of the Julio-Claudian period, though, doesn’t it? I think it’s pretty safe to assume it’s Roman, at any rate.
Lord M & Roman C, I think you're probably both very close to solving this mystery, quickly. Very interesting.
Im gonna apologize for the lengthy response but as I mention its the only way I can express my thanks to the both of you for what your help brought about. That is it. I am able to now match all the little clues the coin has to give through the examples you both provided and I am thrilled beyond belief. My son just came running upstairs to find out why he kept hearing me apparently yelling That is it, that is it and together we picked out every little detail on our coin to the pictures I am 110% positive of, what the two of you figured out in blink, i have been trying to do for the past 6 weeks. Coin collecting opens so many cool avenues especially to think that I just not only now know what coin it is, but just spent the most enjoyable time with my son since he hit that age of he now knows everything.. Talk about a win win. That coin just became the most valuable one I have. I said that is crazy that they actually could call that coin from those pictures and his answer was google hasn't been around for ever, i know i will never have to walk a mile for a phone and there's nothing wrong with being successful even if it is just brushing my teeth twice a day. Find what I love and give it a 110% Happiness is a feeling peaceful is a lifestyle. Here is a great example of being successful. I have told him that the better part of his life and was positive he was hearing impaired, or worse, just could care less about anything that included responsibility. That was his answer to my question of how the two of you could basically call it from blind. I will say it again amazing what all a coin can teach you just a win win Don't really know how else to say thanks besides sharing what just took place not to mention just to wonder has this coin been holding on to my lesson for the past 1800 yrs. Did the person who created this coin see something special in it or its design . It has opened all these crazy little questions of who what why and how this coin and design came about and even though I am sure the story behind it isn't as romantic as all the thoughts we have as to how and why. I do know I see a lengthy history lesson coming and a whole new intrigue into this coin design and we all know where it goes from there. Ancients here we come. Think I will let my son take lead on that and look forward to seeing what I can learn not only from him but about him and who he is today as a person instead of how I have told myself he is and will be. I was sure it had to be pre colonial or early Us and the only reason I kept after it. I can yap about this whole, and what still seems a bit crazy eye opener, due to that blob of worthless metal ( not even close to my word for word affectionate things Ive screamed at it cause I thought why am I wasting my time on something obviously of no value no less probably not even a US coin no less an actual coin ) to this. I know no one will fully understand the big picture of what it is to me but heck maybe Dad doesn't know everything especially if hes doing all the talking. One coin two strangers one question and here I am still amazed and still yapping. I get it and That's it.
Paragraphs, man! Paragraphs! Break your text up into smaller bite-sized chunks, like I did with your earlier post, so you don't scare off all your potential readers! A "wall of text" is intimidating. Also, I am not even 100%, let alone 110%, confident in my theorizing above. I do think maybe I'm in the right ballpark in saying it is likely a Julio-Claudian Roman bronze, but that's all. Your enthusiasm is nice to see, however. As previously mentioned, unless it turns out to be a really rare type (which I rather doubt), it isn't going to be worth very much money as-is. However, the fact that it has some history, and has unlocked you and/or your son's enthusiasm for that history... well, I reckon that makes it priceless. Maybe it will be a good "gateway coin" for y'all.
I stopped reading after the first few lines Anyway, I took the liberty to edit your pictures a bit A few notes: It's a bronze coin It's a left-facing bust On the reverse, there appears to be a temple or altar there is a legend above this temple/altar there is a "SC" legend (S on the left; C on the right); usually with earlier roman imperial bronzes. Looking through OCRE, some come close: i.e. this one (RIC I (second edition) Nero 461) , but then the reverse should be rotated 180 degrees or this one (RIC II, Part 1 (second edition) Vespasian 316) : or this one (but there is no legend around your reverse, it appears) RIC II, Part 1 (second edition) Titus 451 " I stopped looking after Trajan. Here is the website to make IDïng a bit more easy: http://numismatics.org/ocre/identify I checked "bronze", searched for *SC* (these * are wildcards), and added the keywords "altar", "left".
If you corrected the orientation of the reverse image correctly (thank you), it would appear that there may be some lettering above the "temple" or "altar", as mentioned. So no match yet. I think we're getting close, though. It does look like "RMC" up there, as @wrexx opined, though we might be looking at phantoms there- if in fact they are even letters at all. Does anybody know of such an inscription, or something that would look like it after all this corrosion? I agree that there seems to be an SC inscription on there, which would be par for the course on a Roman bronze of the first century.
what we came up with from the reverse is that the letters I mistook for RMC are actually upside down and is a broken o not c the thought to b M is the VI and what looks like an R is actually a disfigured D. a very light p as 1st letter obverse is pretty telling also now that I have a comparison eye socket close match above head i now can make out g v s t v s no p then an A but nothing after. tomorrows a new day thanks again for all the input Wrexx
