What 'strikes' me as so interesting about this coin is that it has such a high relief on both sides. It's 24mm, I assume it to be Antoninus Pius.. The reverse looks to be a temple of some sort, although I cannot place it. Really cool coin in hand and would like to attribute it, if someone could help. Thanks!
Awesome! You guys are the best, I really appreciate it. This is what it says for the reverse if anyone's curious: sanctuary of Zeus and Heracles: two sacred trees in enclosures between thunderbolt (on l.) and club (on r.); before each tree, altar; all on base
There is just a tiny problem In the mid 70ies (last century of course) the pharmaceutical company SANDOZ - now merged with NOVARTIS - issued a series of replicas of ancient coins, all relating in one way or another to medicine. They were given free to MDs by pharmasellers as sort of entrance fee. At this time MDs (anyway in Germany) were well educated in classics, they needed 6 years Latin in school to begin a study, a lot even knew Greek. Among those replicas was this nice coin from Perge, showing two altars with styrax trees (Nollé now suggests that these are actually cypresses that died by lightning strikes - holy trees). The replicas were faithfully marked as such. Unfortunately the word SANDOZ was in high relief and could easily be filed away. Now guess what happened! Unfortunately your coin is an example of decent workmanship of an erased maker's mark. When I began my studies of numismatics at around this time most collectors knew the replicas - but knowledge dies away and younger collectors and even coin dealers just don't know this story any more. Still - happy collecting!
...we all are always learning....thanks for the info ...then i have to say wow @Xodus ..better do some investigating eh?.. ..(woulda fooled me)
Dayum. Okay, now I see what appears to be tool marks at the base of the coin where SANDOZ would've been. I'll mark this as a Sandoz forgery then. It looks to be from the same die as the Fake at RPC. Damn, they're in the wrong business.