Hello everyone, I recently took a chance on this 4th century BC stater of Gortyna. I have my concerns but the weight is within realistic limits and the dies match known examples. I'd like to get your opinions. Have a look at the photos and tell me if you think it is authentic or a modern forgery. It has some copper gold toning but it is in the lower areas, not on high points. Weight is 12.12 g nd most of these run between 11.5 and 11.8 g. There are a concerning amount of split edges with some granular looking gold toned interior metal. The overall profile does not show a hard incuse side but it could be a light strike and other matching examples have a similar profile. The darker toning is uneven and appears as if this was a jewelry mounted piece at one point. a very small indented line runs near the surface on about 1/3 of one side. Could this be from a jewelry mount or evidence of forging? Has anyone seen a similar forgery? I know there British Museum electrotypes of this die but the flan shape is very different.
I am not familiar with the coinage of Gortyna, but I can speak generally about the edge splits. I think they are due to the pressure of the hammer strike. These coins, like other ancients, did not have collar dies to absorb the pressure waves, which emanated from the center of the flan outwards. This pressure can cause the metal to rupture or split, especially in spots where there are slight differences in the mixture of silver with the alloy metal, which is almost always copper. The splits on your coin are relatively small. I have seen other splits that actually extend from the edge towards the middle of the flan. As for jewelry use, I would look for signs of solder or mount marks. I don't see the indents or anything particularly unusual. These flans were cast, so any marks could be due to rounding off the casting features, such as the sprue at the mint. The weight is on the high side, but not to a degree that would raise a caution flag for me. That's a very nice coin!
