Questionable Denarius

red spork nailed it, its a fake coin and it's a match with the one listed in the fake report of FORVM ANCIENT COINS, check it out:

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Boy, your eyes are sharp. I'll take this info and pix with me to next month's show just in case the dealer balks. Thanks for all that "eye" work. I hope that this will help me in the future when buying an ancient but if I did not have this information I still might have bought it. To me it's a pretty good looking fake.

 

Oh, one other matter, being pressed rather than struck. On the Forum Ancient Coins fake site the coin is described as having been struck, not pressed.

 

Struck = created with a sharp blow (or blows) from a hammer.

Pressed = squeezed in a hydraulic press; a slower process that leave some subtle characteristics of the technique.

 

Well, in the hopes of making you feel better - that you are not alone in buying the occasional fake - here is a Julia Domna denarius I bought a while back. It looked pretty good, at the time, but it is an exact die match for known fake on the Forgery Network. I first suspected it because it weighs 4 grams, which is a lot more than these typically run. I keep it for my Hall of Shame Collection.

Now that a couple of years have gone by, I think I might've questioned the overly-elaborate, yet crude drapery on Julia. The portrait might be a bit over-thought as well (is "over-thought" an art term? Probably not.). It's "funny." How's that for a scientific explanation?