Saw this on e-bay and it called to me: I quote: "Central Italy Early Republic Period 5th-3rd Century BC Unformed Cast Bronze Unearthed During Early 20th Century Excavations Near The Base Of Mount Ingino, Gubbio, Umbria
Those are interesting. Check out the earlier posts on these https://www.cointalk.com/threads/cast-bronze-sextans-aes-formatum-anyone.282150/#post-2486929
I think seeing that post is what prompted me to buy this one. 31 g hmmmm wonder if I could sell it on e-bay as the original model for the Troy ounce?
I'm still curious, what differentiates this as a Roman AE Rude as opposed to either a lump of bronze, or some other more recent casting? Without any identifying marks how can the history be verified?
Find information is the only real way of identifying these, as they actually were just lumps of bronze used for trade.
This is mostly what keeps me away from these things. If anybody can just take a hunk of bronze and call it "aes rude," how can I have any certainty it's not fake?
Nice piece. Thanks for posting your treasure. I like to look at and hold the heavy pre-money. Aes rude come in many shapes and sizes. Lots of folks ask what you could buy with these. I think that is the wrong question for early agrarian societies who lived near subsistence level. These people did not go out and buy what they needed. They grew it, hunted it or stole it from their neighbors. Most of these came as a lot from a dealer in San Marino. The items below came as two sets of Aes Rude and the others as pieces of broken bars. You can see some of the valuable dig dirt. I will post my most recent treasure bronze in a new thread.
Being an Ancient Coin Collector, you must have had someone (many someones) ask you..."How do you know it is real"? The only answer to that is provenance.
