Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me to identify a Roman Coin I have. It doesn't have any words or markings on, it has a horse on the back, on the front it has what appears to be two heads with crowns on. I would be most grateful if anyone can help. Please see attached photo's. Many thanks
Thanks for your reply, oh no okay. Please can you tell me what suggests this to be a fake? many thanks
Because it is not sharp at all, especially the reverse which is a poorly designed imitation of a Messana (in Sicily) reverse of the 5th c. BC, while the obverse imitates the jugate busts of Antiochos VIII and Cleopatra Thea (Syria, 2nd c. BC), but in a barbaric style (and with no eyes !!!). A real Roman or Greek coin does not look like this !
GinoLR gave the answer so all I can do is add links to real coins. https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3304966 https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3389013 Recognizing the two halves of a coin separated by a couple centuries, fuzzy cast appearance, unbelievable style and many other things come with experience making a coin like this just look very wrong. That is why we always suggest people buy coins only from people they trust and have good reason to believe that they are experienced in ancient coins. We all make mistakes and can be fooled by a really good fake. We protect ourselves by study and dealing with the right kind of sellers.
I’m fairly new to collecting ancient coins but I’ve been a coin collector for over sixty years. I have to say the coin looks fake to me. It’s just not natural looking. Coins that have been buried for 2000 years look as bad but the images on them have a sharper look to them. Welcome to CT.
Like Doug said, I think this is the best answer. Poor imitation of two completely different ancients. Tourist copy, etc explains it. This is not even going into surface issues, etc. The reverse is one of the most famous reverses in ancient coins. I have tons of, (well, maybe 20), poorly executed fakes of the design in my black box from group purchases over the years. Most of those fakes are much better than this. Not trying to demean the coin OP, just educate you and others reading this.
Maybe we should create a rating system for fakes starting with the ones that would not fool a blind person with no fingers climbing up to the ones that fooled almost everyone for a long period of time. Of course we would have to have a top level for coins that are fake and have not yet been outed. I am sure we could never agree on the rankings any more than we do on grades. I doubt we would agree on whether to list replicas sold by museums in gift shops or as study items. They still appear in the regular market.
Thank you so much for the warm welcome. Yes i've just recently started collecting coins, so I do have a lot to learn. But I have found this forum very helpful and so happy that I came across this.
Welcome. Coin collecting is like any other collectible field, knowledge is the most prized possession. Please ask as many questions as you wish, and read older threads here. Lots of good numismatic knowledge on this forum. I am learning new things constantly and I have collected for almost 50 years now, (wow, that sounded weird to say, but I started when I was a young kid).
Was this one of those people who believes that the Roman Empire didn't actually exist? Or was it the Middle Ages that supposedly never existed? I can't remember which.
If there were no authentic Coins, where did the forgeries come from? A forgery is a copy of something that once existed. If memory serves me correctly a forgery is produced with the intent to defraud according to the law. I’ll have to ask my brother in law about that.
