I wonder if someone could help me please? I have been offered this Caligula/ Divi Germanicus Sestertius. RCV 1799 and I am researching it. The Forum fake listing of this coin shows that the "L" of ADLOCV on the reverse is dipped or pointing downwards, this one is horizontal and matches some others I have seen that were not fakes. The size of the coin is 36.2 mm and the weight which is causing me concern is 25.10 g. There are five examples on OCRE and a close match with one of the British Museum collection examples but the weight of that one is 26.83 g. If I reduce this by 18% as a cast copy my weight would be 22 g and I cannot find evidence of a seam or sprue. When I explode the view of the OCRE samples, the surfaces of the British Museum examples appear to be the same as mine. This one is more worn than the British museum example and I mused as an engineer , if you had a weight and diameter you could almost calculate the validity by weight loss. For example, an EF should weigh 28 g, VF 27 g, F 25 g. In this instance there are not enough examples to get enough input data but I could see that a coin that was very frequently encountered might be. As these are all handmade, maybe such a myopic view is unrealistic, but given the tight weight standards and commonality of some denarius, maybe this would be an exercise for somebody with plenty of time on their hands such as a research student. I have tried to find this coin on Coin Archives but don't have the professional subscription and other searches have proved fruitless. I am not experienced enough myself to determine what this is and the example on Forum doesn't give a diameter or weight which would have been helpful. I am certain that this coin would have been purchased in the UK probably about 10 years ago as the collector did not buy offshore. Any help would be appreciated. I have bought fakes in the past and sadly have learnt to be more sceptical as I see the ingenuity of fakers from posts on CT. I am very keen on this coin but without provenance need some advice.
Features are not sharp enough, especially the praetorians, and the patina is typically artificial... this coin looks like a cast fake.
The coin does not have the clarity and details it should have for the amount of wear evident. It looks like a casting to me. Would definitely not buy it.
