I received this coin today from a lot I purchased on eBay. I was planning to sell off the uninteresting ones and keep a couple that I liked, but this one stands out because of its flan and weight. The reverse is Libertas, who appears on an as (RIC 494b) and a sestertius (RIC 492b); this particular coin weighs 9.62g and has a diameter of 29mm. That's closer to sestertius size, but light even for an as. Besides that, the flan has a very odd edge, but not one which screams 'fake' to me; it has roughly cut sprues at 11 and 5 o'clock, but the rest of it has the weird double edge appearance shown in the photo below. I haven't handled any 3rd century large bronzes, but I know that the weight standards and quality control are a bit scattered. Is this just a case of that, or is there something interesting here, such as a sestertius die struck on an as flan?
That's weird. The flan is cast (as were all of them), but I can't tell if it was before or after striking. Can you tell if it's copper (an as) or orichalcum (sestertius or dupondius)? It's neither RIC 492b or 494b -- those have a reverse inscription of P M TR P VIII COS III P P and this one clearly ends in AVGVS ..., probably AVGVSTI. The British Museum has four bronzes with LIBERTAS AVGVSTI reverse inscriptions, no. 65 (sestertius, 18.37 g, 33 mm) and 66 (Dupondius, 7.92 g, 26 mm; not online and possibly no longer in the collection). These feature Libertas with pileus and cornucopiae. There is also 316 (sestertius, 23.66 g, 33 mm) and 317 (sestertius, 25.42 g, 31 mm), featuring Libertas with pileus and transverse scepter, more like your coin. Are you sure it's Severus Alexander?
The flan doesn't look like the typical cast fakes I've seen. While the double edges are weird (and do remind me of Bing's coin), the roughly clipped sprues which are not really aligned with the image would be quite unusual for a modern fake. Anyway, I don't know why I didn't notice the reverse inscription. As far as it being Severus Alexander, that was just my initial instinct since I couldn't make out the inscription; going back to it, I think it may be Elagabalus. The placement of the reverse inscription is a better match, too. For him, it occurs in all bronze denominations, which doesn't help very much, and the general weirdness of the coin remains. EDIT: There's also a star in the right field, as with this Elagabalus (360e). As I said, still weird... and it being Elagabalus makes me more wary.
Well, they’re pretty similar looking! I don’t know though... the fabric is all wrong, but at the same time it’d be an odd way of making a fake.
