A Denarius of Otho

glad heritage took care of everything. If you plan on doing this in the future, don’t crack it out of the ANACS holder before you submit it to NGC as that would void the guarantee. NGC will look at the coin in the ANACS holder and if it’s fake will return it without cracking it out with a not genuine tag. If it’s authentic it would be cracked and reholdered in an NGC slab.

Barry Murphy

 

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Looks like this coin is being sold on ebay. Same holder.

 

Yes, there it is. Heritage probably had to return it to the consignor, that happens a lot when a coin is withdrawn from an auction or returned. (Heritage seems to have removed it from their own archive of sold coins, but here's the ACSearch link, with my comment referencing this thread.)

And it's possible it's changed hands since then if the consignor wanted to get rid of it.

Did you message the seller by any chance? They may or may not know it's a fake, but it doesn't cost anything to tell them.

 

Yes, just sent a message to the seller.

 

Here's my piece. It was cracked out of an NGC slab before I bought it. I still have the slab label, which has a grade of "Ch VF, Strike 4, surface 6."



Denarius of Otho Obverse IMP M OTHO CAESAR AVG TR P “Emperor Marcus Otho caesar augustus tribunician potestate (representative of the Roman people in the government)” Reverse: SECURITAS (Personification of security, confidence) standing left holding wreath and scepter

Shown above is a denarius of Otho, minted between January 15 and March 8, 69. The reverse features Securitas standing left, holding a wreath and scepter. Weight—3.37 grams. Sear—2163

In the days before "NAIR" Otho kept himself hairless, including his head.

 

Excellent lesson.

@Gam3rBlake ever get yourself an Otho?

 

Talking about people who have disappeared... what about @Gam3rBlake

 

Bidding on some coins in the Numismad auction in Poland tonight and this Otho closed at 320 Euro.

 

As Jyrki Muona featured prominently in this thread's original plot (he's a very prominent Otho specialist), I'll post my sole Otho, which is previously from the Jyrki Muona Collection.


Before and after photos of the Otho:


Many people find this bizarre, but I actually consider this coin much more desirable for having been "quartered" (rather, for the reasons it was quartered):

Muona donated several dozen of his AR Denarii to science. Butcher & Ponting drilled holes in most of them to analyze the changing metallurgy of early Imperial silver coinage. Some coins they "sectioned" for microscopy photographs.

They all contributed to several articles and the important 2014 volume Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage: From the Reform of Nero to the Reforms of Trajan (Cambridge Univ. Press). [There is a substantial preview on Google Books.]

Here are some of the photos of my Otho above (not that you can easily recognize it!):



This coin's metallurgical summary, included in the database on the UK Archaeology Data Service website:



(I also have a Titus that followed the same trajectory... That one was in the "orfew" [Andrew Short] collection, who made a very similar post here about it.)


Of course, it would be preferable if "non-destructive testing" could have yielded the same results. But a great deal of knowledge was achieved through this research.

So I think the sacrifice was worth it, and it feels like quite an honor to own a pair of coins that contributed.