I think this coin is a fake what do you guys think? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUPERB-SI..._Ancient_RL&hash=item3a73ed6afb#ht_500wt_1287
No, its not a Dragon, but does look like em edit: I'll PM you my addy for that cookie Thats what I think
That cookie is fake! It is a Nanbisco "Chips Suey" cookie made in China. You may have to weigh it. Tasting it by licking may ruin it's natural patina.
As far as the coin goes it looks fake because it's clean, but I'm no expert. You'll have to wait for the heavy weights in ancient coins to chime in.
My first thought was that the coin was porous. As is my custom when seeing a doubted coin, I looked at other offerings of the seller just to see who we are dealing with. This seller has a few other ancients but all are late Roman. Most are rather high grade and would be of interest to me but all strike me as just a little off the style I would expect from their types. One or two variant coins from the Magnentius era is not worrysome but when all of the coins are just a bit strange, I start wondering if there is a problem here. I am just beginning to feel a litle comfortable with what is to be expected from Lyon in the mid 4th century and these strike me as too nice and rounded compared to the normal issues or the cartoonish barbarous coins I have seen. I am not saying that I am sure the coins are fakes but I'm not bidding either. That takes us back to the Augustus. The style looks OK. The surfaces looks more like the texture you get from bad cleaning than from casting. I can not rule out from the photo that the coin is modern and treated harshly to make it look 'old'. Again, I am not calling the coin fake but, also again, I am not bidding. If these coins were mixed in with a hudred others that struck me as certainly good, I might tend to accept them as something outside my specific education but standing as a group, I am hesitant to get involved. I would love to see one of those late Romans in hand ((and under a microscope). They are starting at a reasonable price so I would expect them to get a lot of bids if people in the know accept them. It will be interesting to see the results.
Not an expert in these, but it would be a coin I would not be comfortable owning unless someone knowledgable looked at it in person. A few things make me nervous about it, the portrait style seems a touch off. The lettering looks like mixed sized punches. If the early Romans were good at anything, they did letterong on their coins well. Overall its just a coin that looks nice at first glance, but look at it for a few seconds and the hair on the back of my neck stands up, telling me something is off, but my eye is not positive what yet.
Thanks for all the replies, the seller seems to think he got it from a reputable auction. I am still not convinced.
