Received this Trajan AE as today, they usually weigh around 11 gram, this one weighs only 6 gram, looks Original to me, and cant find any fake ones that match this coin. any thoughts ?
Maybe the guy producing the coin stuffed up on the amount of copper he placed on the die before strike, I have seen quite a few examples of this.
Weight is not nearly as important as most people this it is. Ultimately it was not the weight of the individual coin that mattered so much as simply striking say one pound worth of coins. True, it is likely that the mint knew that they needed say xx number of coins total on average (or, I should say minimum), but likely anything over that (underweight coins) was likely just considered a bonus for the administration (or even outright fraud). I still find it amazing they could weigh the flans as accurately as they did overall.
@Bing the diameter is 26mm , and its half as thick as the Claudius As. @chrsmat71 , the coin is on my desk, its 5,9 gram @HAB 28 peace$ - slabbing is out of the question, Doug forbids it ! *all the coins and notes I buy slabbed , are enthombed right away. Ken & Aussie , I list the Trajan as an underweight As that slipped through the Quality control. found a similar Trajan as weight 8,4 gram. I have probably the number 1 lightweight as of Trajan. A Semis of Trajan varies between 2,5 and 4,5 gram, just as strange. This came together with the Trajan As, a nice Claudius As , good weight
Ken => I've heard that same logic several times before (I'm on-board ... but I always hope that I own one of the heavy ones!!) Oh sorry, I really like your OP-coin, Andres-2 (congrats) => cool look to it and a great reverse (total winner)
I have this coin - weight is a tad low but I believe it to be over 10 grams I will have to double check. EDIT: Dimensions - 28.5 mm x 8.79 grams