A friend gave me a whole box of coins that were given to him by his grandfather. This was amongst the lot but I have no idea where it's from, if it's real or not or anything about it. It's incredibly small ( wheat penny pictured for size comparison) so it's hard to imagine it being currency when it could be lost so easily with it being less than half the size of a penny. Just any information would be greatly appreciated. TIA
To my untrained eye, it appears to be an Ancient - maybe Roman, hopefully some of our wise collectors in that genre will weigh in.
My initial thought was Theodosius II AE. Google “Theodosius II AE cross” and see what you think. There are many varieties.
I agree. I don't know if it is Theodosius II, but it certainly does appear to be some kind of late Roman AE4 from that era. So, yes- it's a real coin, and an ancient one at that. I will now take the liberty of using my moderator powers to move this thread to the Ancients forum, where you'll get more knowledgeable assistance in attributing it.
Okay I Googled theodosius II ae and it definitely resembles those more than anything else I've found online. Is there any way to actually know for certain where it's from given the condition it's in?
There are some incredible “sleuths” on this board. They may be able to figure it out. There are what appears to be letters as the reverse legend, so it would not be the wreath variety. If you can match a legend to those letters, maybe you can get close. But, as @Victor_Clark stated, an iron clad ID would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Theo II is probably the most common emperor with this cross-in-wreath reverse type. Short of bringing out the electron microscope, that's about as good as you'll get
Arcadius, AE4, Alexandria. I don't remember the module, something like 11 mm Obv.: D N ARCADIVS P F AVG, diademed bust right Rev.: CONCORDIA AVG / ALE A, Latin cross
