Any specific reason to doubt the authenticity of this Apollonia Pontika Anchor/Gorgoneion Drachm?

... in fact I don't like specimen 40 of the New York hoard.
I am now more than concerned.

 

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@DonnaML - a useful post with good information and discussion. Here's my unusual Pontika drachm, which has a feature, "sea horse", below the anchor on the left, that is not a match for any of the known fakes (Type I). Having no specific expertise in these coins, I am ambiguous about this coin without expert review given features like : sharp crayfish, little forehead, deep anchor groove, reasonably well centered. On the positive side: one row of beads, six legs, the patina is a natural grey, nose falls below the plane, coin doesn't rock, and I'd call it comic-demonic.

Thrace, Apollonia Pontika, circa 480-425 B.C BC, AR Drachm (12.8mm, 3.38g, 11h), light Thraco-Macedonian standard
Obv: Upright anchor with large flukes and curved stock. An additional symbol of crab viewed from above left between the fluke and the stock, the letter A right
Rev: Full-face Gorgon’s head in the archaic Ionian style with a low narrow forehead, projecting eyebrows and eyes, a short flat nose, abnormally open mouth, long teeth and tongue. Instead of hair there are snakes with thin bodies. The image in a concave circle.
Ref: Topalov 41 or 42?, auction house attribution was SNG BM 153
Note: I am even a bit ambiguous about which side is obverse and which reverse - I think I have it right as photographed.

Other thoughts on the "sea horse" or the coin in general?

 

Nice coin. The concave side is the reverse, so you have that correctly.

 

If I understand correctly that the other photo is of a known fake from the New York Hoard (taken from the Goldsborough article), yours is certainly a pretty close match. So I guess you have to decide whether it's more likely that yours is also a fake, or an example of a genuine type from which the fake was copied. Since it's unlikely that you can prove it's genuine by establishing a provenance dating back to before the New York Hoard fakes came out, it sounds like you're always going to wonder, now that doubt has crept in. So it seems to me that perhaps the best course of action might be to provide this evidence to your dealer and ask for a refund. Then you can wait to find another example that you're able to research ahead of time and reassure yourself that it fits in with one of the genuine types, and doesn't match any of the fakes.

It's a good thing that those two Reid Goldsborough articles are preserved on the Wayback Machine, because without them it would be a lot more difficult to distinguish genuine types from known fakes. The fakes list at Forvm is very useful, but it doesn't illustrate the genuine types, and doesn't identify the specific fake types from the New York Hoard.

 

@DonnaML - you are correct. Apparently a die match. So 99.9999% a fake.
I even emailed Mr Goldsborough to see his opinion, but it is extremely unlikely to own a genuine type from which the Specimen 40 was copied.
I knew that this type of coin is a favorite for the Bulgarian forgers but I wasn't expecting this level.

My mistake was that I saw the corrosion and knowing a lot of Apollonia drachms were gathered, literally, from the Black Sea, I thought it was a good sign.

The hammer price was lower than I expected - I thought people didn't like corrosion but apparently they knew better than me.

I already emailed the auction house - we have a good relationship and they have a very good reputation.

 

Good luck. Don't forget that despite all the fakes, there are plenty of genuine ones out there too.

 

Thanks. I wanted one as I just find it iconic for Greek coinage, especially the Medusa image, I think it is one of the most interesting figure on ancient coins.
Apparently I got an iconic one from 20th century Bulgarian non official coinage.
I am sure the auction house didn't do this intentionally but still, I'm a little discouraged.