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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 2259744, member: 74282&quot;]Some of you saw the comment I posted on Alegandron&#039;s &quot;Slam dance&quot; post about the slabbed Hosidia denarius I recently ordered. I was browsing the seller&#039;s other items and found a really beautiful Celtic imitative hybrid that combined two separate Republcian issues, and I quickly fell in love with this amazing oddity, so I sent the seller an offer and eagerly awaited a reply. It turns out the seller lives just under an hour away and would accept my offer on the condition that I pay cash and buy it in person, and it was a nice day for a road trip so I accepted. It turned out to be a really great time, and after spending near an hour sitting on the seller&#039;s porch discussing coins and history I left with this:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]448582[/ATTACH]</p><p>Danubian Celts, imitating Roman Republic AR denarius (17 mm, 2.90 g). After 105 BC. Hybrid of obverse imitating L. Thorius Balbus(Crawford 316/1, 105 BC) and reverse imitating M. Aemilius M. f. Lepidus(Crawford 291/1, 114/3 BC). Head of Juno Sospita with goatskin headdress right, behind IISWK downwards / Equestrian statue standing right on triumphal arches, ILIO right, LEP within arches. Cf. Crawford 316/1 &amp; Crawford 291/1</p><p><br /></p><p>This seems to be a hybrid of two issues, the obverse of a denarius of L. Thorius Balbus and the reverse of a denarius of M. Aemilius M. f. Lepidus. This may be a unique combination, as I was unable to find any similar coins. Hybrids are not unheard of with imitative issues by any means, but it is still a really interesting piece.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was previously slabbed by NGC but I of course cracked it out as soon as possible. The seller remarked that it could possibly be a fouree, based on the light weight(2.9g) and small hole on the reverse, and at first glance with a powerful light it looked to have some green in there like the patina many bronze coins have. Upon closer inspection under the microscope, the silver surface around the hole looks to be quite thick and I think this is just a bubble in the flan that has some of the green encrustation in it that you can see in various places. I scraped a small amount of the green encrustation from the edge and found solid silver underneath as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyone else got any interesting imitative issues? Please share! This one is my first.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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