I like ancient imitations. I just got this imitation tetradrachm of Athens 24-23 mm. 11:00 die axis. 18.78 grams. Cast. The photo does not show the casting seam well, but you can see it from 12:00 to 3:00 on the reverse and 7:00 to 10:30. Much of the surface looks somewhat like copper (the obverse is more copper colored in real life than the muddy brown of the photo) and the worn-through high spots look like gray lead, just as in the photo. The reverse image is close to perfect--the coin is the tiniest bit redder. I wonder how the surface was in antiquity. I wonder if there was silver on it then, gone now, that made it silvery enough to pass for genuine?
My piece of junk cast was made with a test cut already in the owl possibly suggesting to the unsuspecting that the coin had already been cut and shown to be good. It was silvered after casting. I don't know who was more stupid, the man on the Athenian street who was fooled by this trick or me (who bought the thing almost 30 years ago).
