I appologize for the quality scan of the second coin but it's difficult to see in person as well (maybe it's just my old eyes). I was going to try and clean them before scanning but after a little reviewing on the web, cleaning was strongly NOT recommended. I have absolutely no background information on these coins so i'm of little help,, so i'll leave it up to the pros. Thank you Ps. perhaps they are worth at least the cost of a scanner as i scratched the glass on mine while scanning these
Welcome to the forum Woodlake. Looking at the actual coin can you read the legend on the left side of the first coin? Is that a date at the bottom of the reverse? The piece has the "look and feel" of southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, etc., ) to me, and any legend or date information would greatly help in searching the books. I'm afraid the second one is too far gone to ever be authoritatively identified. The obverse seems to have a bust, but it might be male or female and the coin could be modern, or medieval, although probably not ancient, all of which leaves just too much territory to be explored.
The first coin seems to be a roman bronze coin from the times of Arcadius (AD 383 - 408) Emperor. The reverse has a VIRTVS EXERCITI legend and Victory crowning the emperor. They seem to be quite common ($14 in fine shape at online shops). Please compare the included photo. HTH.
Yes that seems to be the one Notoco, Thanks. a simple search for "roman bronze coin" on ebay returned several matches so they are quite common. The second one, as satootoko pointed out, is too far gone to make anything out on it. My eyes hurt from trying to focus on it so many times today and everytime I look at it I see something different! One time I thought I even saw Elvis on the back Thanks for the warm welcome and the quick replies, I believe I'll visit this forum again soon, very interesting and lots of great reading.
Yep. You can just make out "DN HONOR...", so it'd be Honorius, who was the emperor of the Western Roman Empire at about the same time, if I remember correctly. Since it's rather low grade and a mintmark doesn't seem readable, I'd probably cap the value at $10. The second coin is pretty much hard to attribute without an reverse to look at, but I'd take a wild guess that it's a copper (either official, or core of contemporary counterfeit) denarius of Severus Alexander (222-235 AD)
Great job Notoco! This time I need that "foot-in-mouth" icon GDJMSP is always looking for. The reason I assumed it was probably not an ancient is that I thought it was too regularly shaped; but looking at the picture you posted I guess I was way off base.
