Purchase Consideration

Drusus, Struck by Tiberius, 21 - 22 AD
AE Sestertius, Rome Mint, 36mm, 26.31 grams
Obverse: Caduceus between two crossed cornucopiae, each surmounted by a bust of Tiberius Gemellus and Germanicus.
Reverse: DRVSVS CAESAR TI AVF F DIVI AVG N PONT TR POT II around large S C.
RIC42 // Sear1793
Ex Kocaks 1980, Ex Beach, 1990

I would appreciate your thoughts on the authenticity and condition of this coin?

 

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Looks real to me but then I am not real familiar with those coins to know 100%. Depends on the price as well.

 

$700

 

It doesn't match the few fakes in Forvm's reports but the price could be better for the quality (it's not terrible though and the dealer has to make some money). I don't see any of the type coming up for auction in the next couple of months but there have been several of them in the past couple of years, varying in quality and price.

Vcoins offerings should be safe-- if a coin does turn out to be fake, you should be able to return it.

Here are the acsearch.info results for search terms "Drusus sestertius".

 

It does appear to be a bit over-priced as you say. I'll try to get hime to come down. Thanks for the advice!

 

I love the coin-type (two cornucopiae-dudes => how awesome!!)

... here are several other examples to compare your target against (hope this helps)

https://cngcoins.com/Search.aspx?PAGE_NUM=&PAGE=1&TABS_TYPE=2&CONTAINER_TYPE_ID=3&IS_ADVANCED=1&ITEM_DESC=Drusus AE Sestertius caduceus&ITEM_IS_SOLD=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_1=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_3=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_2=1

 

"Kocaks" is probably Frank Kovacs. I would trust him to catch a fake over many, many other dealers.

 

I have the old Frank Kovacs catalogs. It was lot 190 in his mail bid sale number 5, May 30, 1980, and realized $275 (and there were no buyer's fees).

 

Good work! Thank you for taking the time to go through this literature. With Adatirion's endorsement of Kovacs, I'm feeling pretty good about this coin.

 

The coin surface looks very odd. almost like another coins image has been rubbed and over struck or engraved......especially on the reverse. The coin surface seems higher than the lettering on the reverse too?? Does anyone else see this...I find it a little suspicious??

 

Too late! Already bought it...merry Christmas.

 

In addition to the standard level of smoothing that you see in most AEs, there may be some minor tooling on both the obverse and reverse.

On the obverse, note the vertical staff of the caduceus is much sharper than you would expect with this level of wear.

On the reverse, some of the legend and the "S C" are also a bit sharper on the letters' edges than would be expected with this much circulation and wear.

This makes some features of the coin (the sharpened ones) appear a little out of whack (that's a scientific coin term) with the rest of the coin.

 

I suspect the coin was cured of mild bronze disease the way it was done in the old days - digging down to good metal. Is the coin worth $700? I doubt you will get a better one for less. I don't spend $700 on coins unless they are really special to me and these are available nicer in the thousands to fill the needs of perfection collectors. I'd call this a middle child looking for a middle class home. I hope it will be happy with you.

 

The little bit of tooling and smoothing on this coin doesn't bother me. I know it's a matter of taste, but I find it within the parameters of responsible restoration. $700 seems fair compared to the CNG examples linked by Steve.

 

Thanks Doug!

 

Thanks, JA

 

I love this coin as it is now the king of my crossed cornucopiae sub-collection. Such a cool image! I think!

 

It's a marvelous and somewhat creepy type. I wish I had one.

 

Out of my budget, but I like it.