Hello Coin Community! I’m going through my grandpas stuff and he had a bunch of coins — this one I can’t find anywhere online. He had it in an envelope that said “Roman Emperor Servius” but it looks nothing like what I’ve found online. I love history and would love to know what this is. I’m assuming it’s real ( he was pretty savvy) but I literally know nothing about coins. Thanks for any insights.
That's Ptolemaic Egyptian, not Roman. (And there was no such Roman emperor "Servius" anyway.) It looks OK to me on the authenticity front (and quite nice, in fact), but I'll let the folks on the Ancients forum tell you more. Moving this thread there.
Oh, and see that "dimple" in the middle of the reverse, on the eagle's midsection? That's not a dent. The coin was made that way. Again, I'll let the Ancients people fill you in.
It's called a "centration dimple". The indentations resulted from lathe-turning of the flan to prepare it for striking.
And that's also why the edges of the coin look so nice and not ragged. The fabric and style look ok to me.
I'm thinking Ptolemy III Cornucopia series Obol? As with any unknown coin, it's helpful to have the diameter and weight of the coin.
I would have discussed "centration dimple", but isn't that term disputed? Might be too far down the rabbit hole for her, in any event.
As lordmarcovan said, it is an Egyptian bronze coin from the Ptolemaic (Macedonian) period (one of Cleopatra's ancestors). And like Justin says, a weight (in grams) and diameter (in mm) is helpful - these tended to run in series with the same designs, the denomination determined by size. This website gives an overview of types, etc. To figure yours out, note yours has a single eagle on the reverse (tails) side with a filleted cornucopiae in the left field. http://ptolemybronze.com/ptolemy_series.html Whatever the size, that is a nice one. My grandma gave me a silver dollar, which was nice, but I wish she'd had a Ptolemaic bronze in that shoebox as well! Welcome to CT.
