I've been racking my brain trying to date and attribute this coin struck in Roman Egypt under Antoninus Pius and thought I'd throw out an S.O.S. for some much needed assistance. I'm having three problems in particular: 1. Dating the coin. I can't tell whether the reverse says "LI" (year 9) or LB (year 2). It's either a thin "B" or a lumpy "I." 2. Establishing a denomination. At 9.26g, would you expect this to be a diobol, versus a tetradrachm? I can find no other diobol of this type on acsearch.info or elsewhere. It was sold as a didrachm in Savoca Silver Auction 1 (lot 190), but I wanted to confirm this. 3. Finding references for this coin. The closest match I could find is RPC IV online 13783 (a year 17 tetradrachm.) Here are some photos and my incomplete description of the coin: Egypt, Alexandria, Antoninus Pius Æ diobol(?) Obverse: ANTωNINOC CЄB ЄVCЄB, laureate head of Antoninus Pius with traces of drapery, right. Reverse: Isis Pharia standing right, holding sistrum and billowing sail. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide! -Jeremy
It's lightweight cause it's a common fake of a Tetradrachm. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?pid=18861 https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?pid=19897 https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?pid=18826
Ah ha! You're right. Even the cracks in the flan match up with the fakes in the links. Thanks for your help identifying this imposter!
It's actually a relief to stamp out a fake in my collection. I've emailed the auction house for a refund. We will see what they say. Thanks again!
All three fakes linked, as well as yours, are supposed to be Year 17 (LIZ). not Year 10 as the Fake Reports state: in each case, you can clearly see a "Z" at the top just to the right of 12 o'clock. If those are all fakes, then I would think the RPC specimens # 14 (from Naville in 2018, the specimen used to illustrate the type) and # 16 (from CNG in 2019) are fakes as well. And, unfortunately, so must mine be fake: it weighs only 8.46 g. and has the same flan cracks: Damn. It appears I bought it from Lodge Antiquities in the UK in January of this year, through V-Coins. I paid 125 GBP. I wonder if they'll accept the Fake Reports as evidence that the coin's a fake, and allow me to return it for a refund. I'll probably wait to contact them until after Christmas, though!
They should, if they're worth their salt as a dealer. In my opinion the matching flan characteristics are irrefutable proof that they are cast fakes.
My only concern when I bought my specimen was that it looked awfully silvery for an Alexandrian billon tetradrachm from the mid-2nd century AD. One doesn't usually see them looking like that after Claudius and Nero.
I ended up writing to the dealer last night, providing him with the links to the three examples at Forvm of fakes with the same flan cracks. He wrote back this morning, agreeing that "[w]hen you see the coins together there can be no doubt that they are fake," and letting me know that he'll give me a full refund (including my additional postage costs) if I return the coin to him in the UK. He also told me that he had purchased the coin from a collector in Wales who had built up his collection over 30 years, so he thinks the fakes probably aren't that new. A question directed at anyone who's ever mailed anything like this from the US to the UK: can I just mail it to the UK after putting it in one of those cardboard sleeves to go inside the envelope, or do I have to deal with filling out customs forms, etc.? The dealer told me to write "numismatic item returned to sender" on the envelope, so he doesn't have to pay customs fees. I hope that isn't an invitation to theft. .
Perhaps write "fake numismatic item" to deter theft and help the dealer in the event customs thinks it has any value.
