Found this in a bag of old coins that was passed down from my grandfather. After doing some research, it looks to be a Tiberius (Rome 14-37 AD) Silver Denarius biblical tribute penny. The problem is, I have also seen some replicas that look pretty close and the values seem to vary from $100 to $3,000. Any ideas on what I have here?
It looks like a sloppy imitation to me, however: that doesn't mean it's not ancient. These were abundantly imitated/counterfeited in their day. Can you give us the weight in grams? Better pics would help as well. Have you got a camera with a macro setting?
Also: an easy check - is the coin attracted to a magnet? The original denarii were of a high fineness. They should not be attracted.
I do not believe it is ancient. Also, many fakes will not be magnetic so that only will work to show a coin is bad but does not mean it is good.
By the same token, if it is magnetic, that doesn't mean it's modern. I have a fouree tribute penny that is clearly ancient but is attracted to a magnet, which tells me that the core has some iron in it, if it's not altogether iron.
Unfortunately I don't have a scale to check the weight of it. Used my camera on my phone to take the pictures so they didn't come out great. I'll try to get some better pictures or take it to a dealer to see what they think.
Unless the dealer sells or deals in Ancients, they will have no clue. The coin shop nearby actually relies on me for information on Ancients (now that's funny). Your coin looks like a modern fake IMHO.
I will see about taking a picture with a digital camera in macro mode. Unfortunately the pictures from my phone aren't even close to what it actually looks like.
In addition to owning one of these coins, I have seen a large number of genuine ones for sale by dealers and at various auctions. Despite the low quality of the posted pictures, it appears to me that this is very, very likely to be a fake. Nothing about it (the style, the wear pattern, the legends, etc.) look like any other genuine Tiberius that I have ever seen.
Spent some time looking up replicas and authentic tribute pennies last night as well as some older posts on this forum. I don't see any similarities to the replicas or imitation coins. Is there anything specific that jumps out and identifies this one as a replica?
Yes, as Ides said, "Nothing about it (the style, the wear pattern, the legends, etc.) look like any other genuine Tiberius that I have ever seen." It is not as simple as with some modern coins where we might say that the mintmark is quarter of a millimeter tilted to the left. Between us all, I suspect we have seen a thousand times as many of these coins as you saw last night. We might be fooled if someone really tried to craft a photo to make a poor condition genuine coin look like a fake so most of us really prefer not to be too dogmatic so we say things like 'very,very likely' but what we probably should say is that the coin has the same chance of being a winner as the lottery ticket you might have bought last night. It is hard to put these things in words but it is a lot like handwriting. I have signed my name a thousand times and no two are exactly alike. Still I probably would be able to pick out of the thousand the one someone else signed unless they were quite skilled in forgery. Similarly, I recognize certain friends with some regularity that I would have trouble describing in such a way that you could pick them from a group of people the same height and general characteristics. This coin shows no great skill in convincing us that it is other than what we said from the start:
Not doubting anyone's opinion here, just trying to understand the features better. I see some on various sites that are authenticated and do not look anything like others that I have seen. One thing is for sure, of all the pictures I have seen, no two coins look the same. Here are 4 different examples of authenticated tribute pennies and to me they all look different. Again, just trying to understand the features and what goes into the authentication process.
Just one feature for example: Look at the hair of Tiberius. In all supposedly authentic coins this is recognizable as hair locks, which flow naturally. The depressed lines between the locks are always smaller than the locks protruding from the surface. That has to do with the technique of engraving the die. Now look at your coin. It looks like someone put whipped cream on the head of Tiberius. In addition, the depressions between the locks are about as large as the locks themselves. That is very odd on an untampered genuine coin. And can not be caused by wear. Ohers may fill in different "wrong" features, for there are plenty.
I agree with all the others, its just a very poor replica..... everything my eye sees is not good.... engraving, lettering style, surface wear/detail, portrait ........
Poor style, poor engraving, soft devices. I wouldn't put a penny on it being genuine. Hope for you it is though Q
Another thing to remember for those just moving to ancients from moderns is that each die was an individual effort and not mechanically reproduced. The Tribute Penny type was issued for most of the reign of Tiberius and over the years small changes were made in the design on hundreds of dies. For example, three of the coins shown in bellaa1's last post show the variation with plain chair legs while the fourth and the one by THCoins have the fancy legs (later style). There have been students separate these coins into groups that allow a little closer dating. It was unusual for a Roman coin design to be kept in use for so many years. I'd say that the three plain leg coins (especially the last two) show more common style points than average considering there was probably more than one die engraver working at the same time. Modern rulers who live for long reigns often update their appearance as they age. We see this on England's queens who jump from young to old in a few big steps. Ancients were depicted in a day to day basis according to fashion, ability and the mood of the cutter. We consider that a good situation compared to, for example, the US cent showing the same Lincoln portrait for 105 years now.
