OK, I buy coins on e-bay and hope that they are authentic. This last one I bought, I will use the e-bay photos cause I am terrible at photography. This is supposed to be Geta, 18 mm, 2.62 g Anything glaringly wrong?
It looks fine to me. I believe it's this type: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/coins/geta_007.html. See also https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s7173.html#RIC_0009a .
Surfaces are a little porous, but otherwise IDK why anybody would counterfeit a rather common Geta. Geta isn't super cheap, so I only have a Limes denarius.
Can this be turned into a teachable moment, please? Being a newbie, I would suspect this coin is a cast fake based on the porous surface. How does one determine a cast coin from one with a porous surface like this one?
While some fakes are easy to spot with bad style, incorrect weights, and other give-away clues, others will only be obvious after you've seen/held a lot of them. Two examples: here's the quiz: Spoiler: Real or Fake? FAKE
I saw that one and passed. The grainyness (for lack of a better word) on the obverse gave me pause. I am by no means an expert though.
Soft looking edges of letters and devices often result from casting because the crisp details are lost. Wrong weight, little bubbles on the surface, seams around the edges where the two sides of the molds met are also signs of obvious casts. Flan shapes or distinctive damage that exactly match other specimens are a give away of a cast. Lack of or blurry, minute flow lines radiating out from the center of the coin can also be a giveaway. In some parts of the world if you can take 10 cents worth of scrap copper or bronze and turn it into a $5 fake ancient coin that is a very good profit. So don't think no one would ever fake a cheap coin because that is not true. There are plenty of fake $5 ancients out there as others have shown many examples here. John
I once purchased a Gordian III double denarius at a price I considered low but thought that was because it was so common. Turned out even THAT common coin had been faked.
Often times a porous surface can come from a chemical cleaning, usually with a strong acid or a strong base, such as the below:
I say fake, the sharp design of the women's(?) portrait doesn't match the rest of the coin. Just a guess. I know nothing about ancients or ancient counterfeit detection.
I still lean towards the coin in the OP being genuine: I suspect that the blurriness is more in the photo than in the coin itself.
Could be a weak strike, or uneven wear. The obverse of this Caracalla is much smoother than the sharp reverse, but I have no doubt to its authenticity.
Great question, that's why I posted it... it is porous, but I don't see any casting bubbles (or pearls). The edge (which the seller didn't show) looks OK too...
I'm doubling down on my earlier statement of a chemical cleaning. Geta coins were not very pure silver, and the impurities are often removed with chemicals, leading to a porous surface.
I would agree with @hotwheelsearl and @DonnaML that the coin is genuine, but a bit overcleaned. I had a Caracalla antoninianus a long time ago which I cleaned in a similar manner (I have learned much since then). The softness in the designs are likely more a result of harsh cleaning than the coin being fake, in my opinion. The metal porosity also seems to indicate (to me, at least) that the coin is likely genuine.
It looks soapy and appears to have a seem along the edge. Check out some examples on FORVM: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?album=14&pid=1060#top_display_media I'm still new to the hobby and am often wrong, but I'd rather not have something than have it and doubt it's authenticity. If it was me, I would recommend looking for a refund.
Probably genuine but it lost a lot of metal over time. Don't expect a Severan to look like a denarius of Claudius. This Geta denarius was 40-50% silver. When the base metal leeches out -- either from environmental conditions or harsh cleaning (acid or electrolysis) you'll see porous surfaces like this. I'm not surprised it weighs only 2.6 g.
OK...mea culpa, mea culpa, if we don't admit our failures, how would anyone else profit from them. Noting the dark areas on the coin, I figured just touching them with a bit of eZest coin cleaner would help...BAD CHOICE...I think what happened was the silver was dissolved from a low-silver coin... don't think there is any way to reverse this short of doing a silver plating job!