I found this coin (?) And have no idea what it is. Someone said it might be roman. To be honest I don't even know if it is a coin. If anyone could help me identify what this is I would greatly appreciate it.
Why? The obverse has a helmeted head of Athena, not a theme widely seen in Alexandria. Unless you meant Athens? Astrid, can you get us a better picture of the reverse? Take it OUT of the container first.
So here are some more pictures of the reverse. It's the best I could get right now due to the fact that I had to use my cell phone because my digital camera just broke To be honest I have no idea where this coin is from. If you say Athens I'll look in that direction. I just started coin collecting, thanks to my mom and uncle (both coin collectors), and there are so many different area's and books I don't really know where to begin with this one :/ But even if it is fake I think I'll keep
It has an odd color and to me looks like a cast copy. Does it have small pits and raised spots on the surface? BTW, "Alexandrian" refers to a time (4th Century B.C. and thereafter) rather than a place. Alexander's empire included Athens, and coins of similar styles continued to be minted after his death.
I looked at it closely and there aren't any pits. I'm not sure what you mean by raised spots though :/
Well the mystery is over.. My niece just got back from the museum and gave me another one. They sell them in the gift shop She couldn't remember where they are suppose to be from but I think I'll take a ride there this weekend and find out. Thanks to everyone for all your help. It's been fun trying to figure this one out
Regular participants on this site are apt to be suckered by postings when we try too hard to be nice and fair. The original post was a poor photo obviously showing Athena/owl of the general type used at Athens. From the photo it was obvious that it was not exactly regular but not so obvious whether it was one of the ancient civilizations that copied the owls (several in the middle east as well as Egypt). We tried too hard not to condemn the coin for lack of good evidence that it was good and hoped the poor photo was responsible for the strange look. It wasn't. We should have come down on the coin as a museum fake but we were unwilling to take a chance on being unduly harsh and wrongly bringing doubt on a $500+ coin. The fact remains that 95% of all Athena/owl coins in the hands of people who do not specialize in ancient coins are modern fakes. There are good fakes, deceptive fakes, ridiculous fakes that would not fool anyone and many stops in between. Perhaps we would be more likely to serve beginners properly if we were to take a hard stance on Athenian looking coins and require evidence that a coin is good before even suggesting that it is not a fake. Guilty until proven innocent is not a concept we like but in the case of this particular coin, it is usually the safe bet. If anyone else has an owl on which they would like an opinion, lets at least require a good photo and full description (diameter and weight) before considering that it might even possibly be real. I feel embarrassed even wondering if this coin might be an Arabian copy issue when I don't really know enough about them to separate them from a tourist fake. Shame.
