A good friend of mine asked if I could help him figure out what his coin is, and how much it may be worth. Thanks everyone. Coin weighs 13.2 grams.
No it is not unheard of. The experts will pass by in due course. There are one or two things that worry me, but I am in no way an expert.
I am by no means an expert, but this coin looks wrong to me too. It is way to soft in appearance and I see what appears to like casting bubbles (just below the ear for example). Please wait till others with more knowledge chime in. I very well could be wrong.
As others have said, I am uneasy about this coin. I don't know the type well enough to make any intelligent statement but I'll let you know if searches turn up any information, pro or con. Just because no match is found doesn't make it authentic... and just because some of us have suspicions doesn't mean it is fake.
The general style is of a tetradrachm from Syracuse, Sicily, during the Second Democracy. Some authentic examples from CNG's Archives: Among other red flags (such as general style), the weight of your friend's coin is far too light.
Yah sadly, I think we're all pretty sure that baby is a fake ... it just ain't right (the surface of the obverse is definitely suspect, yes?) ... hey, but I would certainly be the first to admit that I was incorrect (it did happen that one time)
There are traces of the Syracuse legend between face and dolphins. I see it as a cast fake from a fake original. Very few of these have that good centering. If real I see this as a 4 digit coin. As it is, one digit$.
