I was hoping to garner some opinions on the legitimacy of the Juila Maesa AE I recently got. My Severan AE collection is very small, so I don't have much to compare it with. Your opinions are greatly appreciated. Julia Maesa Æ As (Grandmother of Elagabalus) (218-222 A.D.) Rome Mint IVLIA MAESA AVG, draped bust right / FECVNDITAS AVGVSTAE, Fecunditas seated left, holding cornucopia, child at feet; S C in exergue. RIC Elagabalus 411; BMC 402. (9.13 grams / 24 mm)
Looks just fine, only very worn. Its a Fecunditas reverse, RIC411. These are pretty scarce. Nice coin.
Thank you all for your input. This was kind of an odd eBay deal - the seller said that it was a "fantasy" - but admitted he knew little about ancients. I rather appreciate his caution in describing it (so many eBay sellers make the opposite assumptions about their stuff). The "fantasy" description scared me off at first, but I looked at it for months, seeking other examples online, etc. The more I looked at it, and compared it to others, the more it looked okay to me so I took a gamble and bought it ($13.49). In hand, I thought it looked legit, but I know you guys have a lot more experience with this sort of thing and I wanted to run it by you. Again, many thanks. I appreciate it.
Style looks about right, but I'm concerned about the soft details and all the circular indentations on the surface. No obvious edge seam, though, so that's in its favor.
I'm a little uneasy about the soapiness of the obverse, but undecided. Not a lot of money on the line either way. I briefly owned one, sourced from a Leu bulk lot and IIRC sold for about $100