Please help identify and whether authentic or a reproduction

A friend of mine has this coin and asked me if it's worth anything. I'm no expert but someone reading this right now is!! Please identify. Thanks.

 

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@chrisild this needs to be in the Ancient forum.

 

Looks like the real deal to me, but ask the ancient forum guys.

 

It looks Roman. Maybe it's one of these emperors:

Image from Google

 

Perhaps an administrator can move this into the ancient forum for me? In the past, I've accidentally broken rules by posting again in a different forum.

 

Looks legit from the high altitude photo's. Why do you need the admin to move post. Just start a new thread in the correct forum. And if you don't want to retype just cut and paste. Good luck

 

I was redirected here from a general discussion post. Please see the photos of my friends coin, we are wondering if it is authentic and if it can be identified. Thanks! I apologize to the admins if this is viewed as a "duplicate" post....I didn't originally see there was a forum titled "ancients" and really didn't know if that's where this particular coin belongs anyway. If it wasn't made after 1800 then I am a complete idiot!!

 

The photos were taken hastily and are horrible....depending on what this community says, I will ask my friend to allow me to take better photos!

 

That is a debased silver denomination called an Antoninianus. It depicts emperor Gordian III, AD 238-244. It was minted in Rome in 239. The obverse reads IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AVG. The reverse reads P M TR P II COS PP and depicts Fides Militum standing left, holding standard and transverse scepter. References: RIC 15; Cohen 201; Sear 8632

 

So common that silver coins of this emperor have been called "the cockroaches of Roman silver." Too common to forge.

 

Unfortunately this one is a modern forgery. Here's another example.

 

Seriously? Gordian III?

 

So what's the next step to determine if it's a forgery?

 

My natural tendency is to believe that a piece like this IS a forgery and try to prove it. Guilty until proven innocent. Verify it's a fake until someone says it's authentic.

 

Out of curiosity and for the sake of discussion....if this were an authentic Gordian III "Antoninianus" and "cockroach" of ancient Roman coins, what would it be worth to collectors?

 

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/gordian_III/RIC_0026cf.jpg

Based on this....a website I found using information this community provided, the reverse now looks extremely suspect!!

 

~30 US dollars.

 

It is definitely a forgery. Style of both devices and legends is incorrect and the link I posted shows an exact duplicate with the same exact centering and imperfections and there's a link to another one that is an exact duplicate there as well. These were struck by hand in such a way that each ancient coin is unique to some degree. Additionally the coin is overall very flat, just like modern machine made coins.

Because of the style(which is not ancient), the exact duplicates and the overall modern fabric (physical characteristics), there is more than enough evidence to conclude that this coin is not in any way ancient. Your example is probably the tenth I've seen. These are very common fakes, probably being sold in a museum gift shop somewhere or something.

 

Gordian III Antoninianus. I think it may be RIC 15 Sear-8632 (lots of TR P II reverses with standing deities holding stuff). Not up on current prices but my very rough guess is $25-50 retail. There are enough people on here that know this stuff so they can correct any errors I may have made.

 

one would think so, wouldn't one, but on looking at the portrait i would have to agree it looks like it belongs in this can