Sextus Pompeius Faustulus Denarius - Too Heavy to Be True?

I am conflicted about this coin. It is s Sextus Pompeius Faustulus with Roma/ Wolf, tree, shepherd, birds, Crawford 235/1a.

Pro: Style seems okay. Edges look okay, with a couple of typical flan irregularities typical of denarii (not cracks exactly, not sure what to call them).

Con: It is very heavy: 4.48 grams. I looked at all the online examples I could find and around 4.1 grams was the heaviest I encountered. The surface has some pits, could be from a casting, or just old age? No casting dimples (protruding) that I see.

Not Sure: Weird tone. Sorta like somebody tested it for silver, sloppily and stained it. Not really a "fake patina" effort, I think (unless the faker was pretty inept).

Any opinions? What would be great (well, not really) is that if it is a fake, then there are other examples from this same mold (I didn't have any luck finding this sort of thing online, but I was probably not looking in the right place). As always, many thanks for help, comments, other examples, etc.

 

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I don't like it one bit, sorry.

 

I'm not very fond of the bicolor tone on it, hence I would stay away
When you doubt, there's no doubt, that's the motto !

Q

 

Ditto

 

To my eye, there are so many things that look fake about this coin that I can't even begin to enumerate them.

I, too, was unable to find a similar coin this heavy in the 43 examples that popped up in an ACSEARCH; the heaviest one I found was 4.00g.

The surface on both the obverse and reverse appears to have mainly two levels of relief that have been smoothed and flattened; this doesn't remotely resemble normal wear due to circulation among the coins I saw on ACSEARCH. The smoothing would get rid of any casting bubbles that may have been present.

Your third picture (the first one illustrating an edge) appears to show a casting seam.

I'd be stunned if this coin weren't a forgery.

 

Casting bubbles, soft devices, wrong color, and casting seam on edge.
I'd say 99% fake. Only the Sith deal in absolutes.

 

yup, it rings cast all round.

 

Its listed with 2 other types on Ancient Coin Forum as fake:

 

Personally, in doubt? Without a doubt, it is out!

Mine:


RR Sextus Pompeius 137 BCE AR Den She-Wolf Rom Rem S112 Cr 235-1a

 

I'm a Smith not a Sith so I'm one M past your absolute. 101% fake.

 

Funny and true

 

Thank you all for your help on this. I do appreciate it, even if not what I hoped to hear.

 

Thank you Andres2 for posting that image - I appreciate it.