Since it is around 4.5g, my bet is that it is a Late Roman/Byzantine solidus or "nomisma" weight. I have seen them with similar patterns. Very cool to be made from such an early coin!! (Here's one that is early, but not that early.) My two 12 keratia weights (?) made from coins:
Look at the surfaces on this thing! Yikes! It actually looks worse in hand! LOL! Caracalla, Moesia Inferior, Marcianopolis, 198-217 AD Obverse: AVT M APHΛI ANTΩNEINOC, Laureate draped cuirassed bust right Reverse: V I ΦAVCTINIANOV MAPKIANOΠOΛI / TΩN, Tyche standing facing, head left, holding rudder and cornucopia 29 mm 11.0 g Julius Faustinianus, consular legate.
Man, Chris, you have such high standards. Seriously, that's not half-bad in my book. Can you believe I actually bought this one and didn't just pick it up after running over it with my car? I think I once counted that it has more craters than the moon. ELAGABALUS AE25. 10.14g, 25.1mm. MACEDONIA, Thessalonica, circa AD 218-222. Varbanov 4444. O: AV K M AVR ANTWNINOC, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. R: QECCALONIKEWN, Nike advancing left, holding small Kabirus and palm branch.
Oooh, I’ve got a lot of these Hadrian AE Drachm, Alexandria mint, Year 18 (AD 133/4), RPC 5914, Dattari 7915 Obverse: ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙС ΤΡΑΙΑΝ - ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟС СƐΒ, laureate, draped bust right Reverse: L IH, sphinx with crown of disc, horns and feathers, with crocodile emerging from chest, walking, r., on serpent; above, small Athena advancing, r., with spear and wreath Trajan AE Drachm, Alexandria mint, Year 13 (109/10), RPC 4411 Obverse: ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙ ΤΡΑΙΑΝ СƐΒ ΓƐΡ ΔΑΚΙΚ, laureate bust of Trajan, r., nude and with aegis on l. shoulder Reverse: kalathos in biga of oxen or buffaloes right Obverse: DIVI F IMP CAESAR, bareheaded bust of Augustus right Reverse: A PLAVTIVS PRO COS, temple of Aphrodite at Paphos and courtyard Struck ~21 BC at Paphos, Cyprus, 15mm, 3.5g, RPC 3906 Augustus Denarius (delaminating, not fouree) Obverse: Augustus, oak-wreathed left Reverse: CAESAR AVGVSTVS in two lines above and below two laurel-branches RIC 33b, Minted in Spain (Colonia Caesaraugusta?) in 18-19 BC
ANASTASIUS Half Follis OBVERSE: D N ANASTASIVS P P AVG - Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right REVERSE: Large K - cross to left, Γ to right Struck at Constantinople 491-518 AD .03g, 8.5mm SB 23
I am all about how coin feels at hand. Many ugly coins for some looks beautiful for me. For example this Narseh is a coin 90% collectors would pass on it but I love it . It is rare and has mint mark below fire altar which was missed by collectors who passed on it.
Here is a worn Domitian denarius that I bought because I might never have the opportunity to own another one. According to David all left facing Domitian denarii are rare but the ones issued for him as Caesar are especially so. So when given the choice between owning a worn example or none at all the choice was simple. Domitian as Caesar Denarius 79 to 24 June 18mm., 3,15g. Obv:Head laureate l; CAESAR AVG F DOMITIANVS COS VI Rev: Salus stg r resting on column feeding snake out of patera; PRINCEPS IVVENTUTIS RIC 1085 [Vespasian] BMC page 47 note. RSC 385. Ex: Savoca Blue 19thauction April 21, 2019 Lot 1138
A thread dedicated to dregs? Heh, too easy! Here's a decrepit fella. Still valuable (look carefully) Rasiel
This train wreck is important to me but is no great howling rarity and is not actually one that I would normally collect. It is an AE24 Roman Provincial of Titus from Judean Ascalon. The obverse bears his portrait left with the abbreviation CEB descending left; the reverse has the city goddess standing left with ASKELO (in Greek) in left field, and DNG (in Greek low to the right) indicating year 80-81. The seller was a long experienced dealer but could not find it in any of the standard references back when I bought it, in late 1987. I never tried to follow up on it. So why did I buy it if it it didn't fit in with anything. Part of the reason is that I was still in the early stages of collecting and had left open any possibility for a direction to go. But the main reason I wanted it had little to do with the collection I was forming. In the summer of 1987 I spent six weeks in Israel on an archaeological excavation as a volunteer under the auspices of the University of Chicago. The dig was year two of the Leon-Levy Expedition directed by Prof Lawrence Stager (then at Chicago but soon after, Harvard) and located in the Israeli National Park in Ashkelon. I had bought numerous antiquities while in Israel, but none from Ashkelon and no coins. So when I got back I started looking for something to connect with the time on the dig. The squares in which I had worked had been digging in Late Bronze in one and Iron II in another, and from them I had some sherds the director let me keep, but nothing recognizable that really said "Ashkelon." So when I got back I found a coin dealer who had some inexpensive pieces like this one. For less than $30 I got a lifetime memory piece that puts me back there to this day. Sometimes its all about time and place.
A heartfelt thank you to all you guys for all the "roadkill" beauties you've shared, and the reasons behind why you got them. I didn't think this thread would get so much participation, but it's been lovely to see all your coins. Thanks for sharing. I'll post another coin. Not sure I'd call this "roadkill" but it's certainly a standout due to it's weak strike and extremely poor flan quality. Almost looks like it was struck on a raw piece of copper. That's the reason why I got it, I fell in love with the poor quality control on display here... Tetricus II
For the less experienced checking out this thread at some point... this is a Martinian! Very cool, @Suarez. Also cool that it's overstruck on a camp city gate.
Always a favorite, a barely-attributable dupondius of Herod Antipas, the "John the Baptist's head on a silver platter" dude. Immensely rare denomination from a key player in the New Testament. His coins have gone down quite a bit since I first picked this one up, but in a $1/coin lot, I'll never duplicate this success Along the same lines, here is my fiddy-cent Pontius Pilate picked from a lot that I somehow felt compelled to buy. Much less cheap, but an acceptable hole filler for Pertinax. Have you ever seen what a problem free VF of his goes for? Yeesh... Carausius hole filler $20 Allectus, $15 A budget Otho Tiberius Gemellus - these are usually horrid Nero Claudius Drusus sestertius Hostilian as Caesar An exceptionally rare (about 10 known) "Sri DaMa" drachm
This is an ugly but rare Otho duckling - only known from one pair of dies. RIC 2 - Bare head right, IMP OTHO CAESAR AVG TR P / Ceres, CERES AVG. It had a hole drilled into the edge (not visible here) and a small amount of silver removed for metallurgical analysis as part of a study reported in "The Denarii of Otho: A stylistic and Compositional Study", in Italian Numismatic Review 2009. Some of the other coins used for the study had a quarter or up to half of the coin removed and melted, so this one got off lightly. The coins used for the paper were sold by a Vcoins dealer in 2010 and I haven't noticed any of the cut-up coins since.