Hi all! I've seen this coin for sale, and am interested in buying it. However, I have concerns about the patina of the coin - it looks very rough and sandy, and may be artificially added. There is also a gap beneath the bust (possibly with some abrasive marks). Could this be smoothing? The reverse is very similar: Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I mean why would anyone want to make a counterfeit of a Gallienus ant? if it's really a rare type, then i'd be skeptical, but to me this coin looks not unusual.
What's the reverse? It's possible it may have been smoothed or just extra cleaned in some areas. Otherwise it looks OK coin wise.
The question was not whether the coin was genuine or not but whether the sand patina was added. Making a fake for 10 cents that sells for $10 is why fakes are made. In this case, I tend to believe the coin is just poorly cleaned with more of the 'genuine' sand scraped away at the bottom. I do not believe it is 'Maybelline' as often discussed here but anything I say has a 50% chance of being wrong. IMO it makes no difference. I do not want the coin as it is and am not sure I could clean away the rest of the uneven sand any more expertly than the bottom was done already. For future reference: the original poster would get more significant opinions had he shown both sides and provided a sharp photo of both sides. As it is, my reply is mostly to the question posed by JayAg47. Making fake coins is a way to make money. Tourists and beginners who know nothing about coins other than they are old would be as likely to buy a common fake and people who know it is common, like yourself, might not believe anyone would bother. I do not believe this coin is fake but there are fakes of coins more worthless than this.
Ah, sorry. Not sure why that didn't upload. Here's the reverse. Unfortunately, I didn't win the bid, though, so it doesn't really matter (the lot of coins it was in went for £600 at Roma, my bid was £400) (the gaps are where other coins were in the lot) You can probably see why I wanted it lol. Only 2 are on acsearch (one with a slghtly different obverse), both went for over £2000 (but in better condition)
lQQks legit to me...but idk...its a rare reverse for sure....well, since you didn't win it...i wouldn't fret about too much...
Thanks! Yeah, £600 is above my budget for a single coin (even if it is one like that). I did win a couple of other lots at Roma, though, so it wasn't a total loss. I'll make a post about them in a bit
LOL - yeah, there was another post about this lot... looks like it slipped away from at least 2 CT'ers... wonder who won it in the end. Nice coin though, and definitely looks genuine to me...
Pretty disastrous if Roma knowingly sold a fake coin... I see nothing that strikes me as odd. There is tooling/mechanical cleaning, but that's of no concern unless you're a purist, IMO.
Your coin looks like original. Don't worry. The soil structure of the place where it comes out can often cause patinas like this.
Yeah, it looks genuine. But if I got outbid on it, then I'd most likely tell myself that it was probably fake anyway.
