Assistance With Nailing Down An Attribution

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by kevin McGonigal, May 28, 2020.

  1. Barry Murphy

    Barry Murphy Well-Known Member

    This coin is off in many ways. Really the best way to tell is to handle as many coins as possible. I’ve probably handled 75-100,000 gordian ants and denarii at this point.

    there are also several excellent references, although not all readily available.

    there of course is RIC and the Hunterian catalogs, both of which are a little dated at this point but both are still essential.

    Hard to find..... there is a study done by George His which I have a copy of (never published as far as I know) and Ted buttreys doctoral dissertation on gordian iii which I also have a copy of in my library.

    online there are over 4000 Gordian iii ants on Coin Archives.

    finally there is the study of the Eauze hoard which is excellent and not to difficult to find with a little searching.

    Barry Murphy
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2020
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  3. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    I make no claim to expertise, but compare the name Gordianvs on your coin to the name on all the ants and denarii posted in the current Gordian III thread. I see a big difference. On yours the font looks close to being sans serif. On the others, the serifs are very obvious. Plus I don't really see any flow lines on yours. Plus, despite your theoretical explanation for the portrait, I can't get past it without seeing another one like it.
     
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  4. kevin McGonigal

    kevin McGonigal Well-Known Member

    OK, I guess it is into the black box with this one. I have had this coin so long I have no idea where I bought it or who from, so I guess it is a write off. I thank those who contributed to this, especially those who pointed out what was likely wrong with the coin and a tip off to its questionable attributes. I must admit to my embarrassment at posting a coin I had no idea was likely to be some kind of modern copy and I feel so bad about this that I am going to buy a new coin on line to assuage my temporary feelings of inadequacy, which is so disheartening, that I think I'll make it two new coins.
     
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  5. Roerbakmix

    Roerbakmix Well-Known Member

    I think this is excellent coping. Please don't be embarrassed, fakes happen to all of us (except maybe for @Barry Murphy, but all experts were novices at some point).
     
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  6. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    I dunno. Go ahead and be embarrassed if you get two new coins out of it.

    Hmm . . .maybe I should be embarrassed, too.
     
  7. Alegandron

    Alegandron "ΤΩΙ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΙ..." ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ, June 323 BCE

    Do you keep your emails from any correspondence? I usually do a search of the coin within my email (directories and/archives), and many times have found my correspondence, invoices, dates, shipping updates, etc. come up. Email seems to be a database all in itself as well as a Cloud storage of info that I USED to forget about. It helps me a lot
     
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  8. kevin McGonigal

    kevin McGonigal Well-Known Member

    Thanks, but I am pretty certain it is a coin show purchase from years ago. I still like to purchase coins at shows so I can see the coin in hand. As I said before, I know I didn't pay a whole lot for the coin. It may have part of a multiple purchase, package deal. I suspect there was never any paper work with it to begin with. I just feel so embarrassed that it was readily spotted by several members as likely a copy and I had no idea. I never suspected this one. My only hesitation was over the apparent "bite" out of the coin at six o'clock. Maybe I was paying so much attention to the obvious flaw that I ignored anything else. Oh, well. At least it's an addition to the black box display, though I'd rather not increase that part of my collection.
     
  9. Alegandron

    Alegandron "ΤΩΙ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΙ..." ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ, June 323 BCE

    Agreed. I do the same. Fortunately, when I was in NC for several years, we had several shows that always had a great Ancients attendance! Walk the show, get a bargain, and failed to really log all the info later. Sometimes it was a poor photo at the show when I bought it, and only the tags had any info. Easy to do. And the excitement of seeing several Ancients overwhelms some of the diligence that I needed to really do.
     
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  10. Marsyas Mike

    Marsyas Mike Well-Known Member

    Kevin, thanks for posting this and for being such a mensch about the bad news. I find this sort of thing to be useful - and you have my sympathy.

    Here is a fake Julia Domna that, after I bought it, I looked up and found on the Forgery Network:
    Fake Julia Domna denarius 2017 (2).JPG
     
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