Here's an RR bronze with a perfectly nice obverse, but some cretin decided to "improve" the reverse by tooling in the lines of the ship. It's not even good tooling - it looks like the blockhead just pulled out his Swiss Army Knife and scratched a bunch of lines into it... Prior to the "improvement" the coin would have been a very respectable example of the type - no damage or encrustation, just honest circulation wear. I would have gladly paid at least fifty bucks for it. As it is, I fished it out of Harlan Berk's junk bin at the Baltimore Expo some years back for $15. The nice bust(s) of Janus deserved some love imo. If I ever catch the dunce that defaced this sacred piece of history for the sake of adding a few bucks to its market value, so help me.
It would make a nice tie bar if you glued it to a finding but I never wear a tie anymore so the need for jewelry is non existent. The question is whether we want such a coin at any price. If it were tooled on both sides, I'd say no but it is acceptable if you lay it right side up. At least we can be glad that there are dealers like Berk who can tell the difference between things like this and good coins.
Cringe-worthy indeed, @John Anthony. I'd much rather have an honest smoothie like this. Anonymous, Second Punic War, 218-202 BC. Roman Republican Æ as, 27.8 g, 31.1 mm, 1 h. Uncertain mint south of Rome (Campania?). Obv: Laureate head of bearded Janus, I above. Rev: Prow of galley, right; I above, ROMA below. Refs: Group D1, McCabe, Andrew. "The Anonymous Struck Bronze Coinage of the Roman Republic" in Essays in honour of Roberto Russo / ed. by Peter G. van Alfen and Richard B. Witschonke. - Zürich ; London : Numismatica Ars Classica NAC, 2013, pp. 141-144.
That is a fast way to ruin a nice coin. What did they do, fall on their head when they were 5 years old and haven’t recovered? What a shame.
That was a fun read. Kind of reminds me of the card game "War". Slowly but surely one side overwhelms the other.
Law #6: The more intelligent a person thinks they are, the more likely they are to be stupid. This is my addition to the 5 laws. And I know it's true, because I'm very smart.
You can ruin a coin in one easy step: Rubbing it, cleaning it, dipping it, holding it in your hand, dropping it, etc. etc. I especially get a kick out of e-Bay sellers who are holding their sale item in the palm of their hand. Bidiots!
The"rule" against holding a coin in your hand doesn't apply so much to ancient coins. Although I do try to hold them by the edges. Most of the time!
are we talking about moderns here or ancients? lol you can hold and non-abrasively touch up an ancient, but this sounds like news to you I’m sure
