There has been some discussion about the authenticity of my coin, but I will post it anyway. It's not clear that it is anything other than what it purports to be. C SERVILIUS M.F. ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS SERVILIA AR Denarius OBVERSE: Winged, helmeted head of Roma right, surmounted by head of an eagle, Lituus star under chin, ROMA below REVERSE: the Dioscuri galloping in opposite directions, C SERVEILI M F in ex. Struck at Rome 136 BC 3.4g, 18mm Syd 525, Cr239/1
I do not recall. That's been a while ago. I have it marked in my catalog that there was concern but nothing more.
This coin is a hybrid of the following two types: obverse, reverse It looks ancient, for what it's worth. I think it is a contemporary imitative, possibly in good silver. I have 2 other examples in my photo file, both of which are probably from the same dies(picture here - look at the die break across the lituus) and which have definite signs of being made with transfer dies. This is likely a product from Eastern Europe where many good silver imitations have been found as well as a small hoard including the transfer dies(made from genuine coins) used to strike them(though some used wholly new dies in their Eastern European style as well). @Volodya might know even more
Let me guess. You posted this from your phone and it decided to "help" you a little bit with your spelling. It has some areas of roughness of course, but I like the obverse toning.
Great design , congrats Aethelred . I like those Dioscuri coins, got a small collection, here's my Servilius:
I see no particular reason to doubt the authenticity of this piece, but when a coin is this corroded, it's hard to really be sure. Assuming it is ancient, it's the sort of thing I would expect to be a plated ancient counterfeit. I looked with that in mind, and I do think I see a base metal core peeking through the banker's mark (or perhaps simply damage?) at 12h on the reverse. The 3.4g weight is plausible for a corroded but good silver coin, but correct weight isn't as clear an indication of good silver as is often assumed. It's easy enough to find unmistakable fourrees which nonetheless are of proper weight. I imagine they're just a bit thicker than an official coin would be; enough to beef up the weight, but not enough to be detected at a quick examination. The question of banker's marks on plated coins is interesting. One would've expected that the coins would be removed from circulation and presumably destroyed when the core was revealed; isn't that the whole point of testing them? That absolutely isn't always the case though. See for instance the following coin, with several banker's marks and an obvious core: I'm fond of this coin from my imitations collection. Once upon a time, I devoted most of my Celator column to it. Here's a bit more discussion on my web site, with a link to the Celator column: http://rrimitations.ancients.info/platednearroman1.html Phil Davis
