Any way to identify this?

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I'm quite novice with my ancient knowledge, however I note that I am not seeing any sort of attributable letters or symbols.

 

Post it on the Ancient coins forum and ask them how to properly remove the crud from this coin. (If it is a coin)?

 

Possibly, although I can't tell for certain from the photos. You may have to strip it down to bare metal--e.g., electrolysis--to get a positive ID. But even doing that is no guarantee.

 

I think I see an ancient smiley face looking up at me.

 

If you rotate the photo clockwise 90 degrees, you might see a portrait with an inscription around it.

 

I rotated my laptop by 90 degrees and thought I could make out the portrait of Felix the cat. Probably not him though. Seriously gsimonel has offered a good suggestion. I do believe there is a partially visible legend and portrait if you rotate it. It does not look like a late roman bronze, that's one thing I can deduce.

 

What's the size and weight; that usually helps a lot. I think I read: NOBIL C which would make it one of Constantine's sons. Where was it found? In England perhaps?

Frans

 

Curious, could you trust the weight reading with that much crud on it?

Has anyone weighed their encrusted coins before and after cleaning to see how much weight it added? Obviously the responses will never be uniform, but I wonder if there is a range that can be deduced?

 

Burnt cookie???

 

Try using a light source at an angle. I have a coin that looked pretty flat & worn-out in the seller's pics.

In hand it did not look much better. When I used a flashlight at an angle, some features were visible.

This coin was clean from the seller. I did not try cleaning it.
Your coin looks like it could use a good distilled water and / or olive oil soak followed by gentle brushing with a soft tooth brush.
Measure and weigh the coin now. You can always weigh it again.

 

Looks like Flintstones money

 

I am useless with a PC so am unable to do outlines or fancy things to the 1st picture you posted, that said if you rotate the 1st pic 90 degrees clockwise you will see the head of the emperor.
To me it resembles an Alexandrian Tetradrachm of the 3rd century, in this case the weight would be important.
It would also help to post size and thickness ( thin or fat )

 

Try getting it wet. Best I could do digitally:

 

I see nothing attributable, and is that bronze disease?

 

I agree that best guess is an Alexandrian Roman tet. I would follow some of the cleaning suggestions and see if more details emerge -- can't make it look worse or worth less. Also, what is on the reverse?

 

It appears - though it's not possible to be 100% sure from a photo - that this could well have a serious active case of bronze disease working beneath the encrustation.
It's quite possible you would wind up with a more-or-less featureless disc - or just debris in the bottom of the tank - if you were to do electrolysis.
One plus for electrolysis, however, is that it's pretty good for removing superficial active BD - if BD has established itself in the core of the coin, there's little chance you will ever be able to salvage "a coin" out of this lump at all.
Some of them are simply too far gone - you just can't reasonably ID them. Deep forensic study might shed some light on its origin, but I know folks who save those "hopeless" pieces and for a goof scatter or bury them shallowly in public places or elsewhere their presence might confound some future archeologist. Not too sure about the overall propriety of that, but it is something you could do other than flipping it directly into the bin.
I do applaud you for trying - many impatient or profit-centered folks give up on much better preserved pieces than this. Working with barely identifiable coins is a great way to build your identification "chops", although it can be very slow and frustrating going until you clear the first steep learning curve. Don't let this discourage you too much.
As for "cleaning", go ahead and try if you're so inclined. You're not going to be able to cause any real "damage" to a valuable piece here. By definition, it's unlikely to be rare, and it's already probably 99% dead.

 

Honestly no clue where. Hand me down.

 

Tried my best to clean it up. 10g weighed. Diameter is 3/4". Zoom makes it harder to identify letters for myself. Praying this helps someone else help me. I asked only relative that would possibly know where it came from to no avail. As well, its as thick as 2 nickels.

 

Someone suggested previously that it might be an Alexandrian tetradrachm of one of the tetrarchs or other later-date issuers of Provincials in the 3rd century. Although it shares many features with this group, it also apparently has a full circumference concentric legend on the reverse which is seen vanishingly seldom on the Egyptian provincials - usually only the date, occasionally the date-number may be spelled out or contracted concentrically, or the deity/personification's name occasionally is stated, but that usually requires fewer characters than this piece has in its apparent concentric reverse legend. The thickness is appropriate for an Alexandrian tet, however.
This Diocletian tet is fairly representative of what they look like in a little better condition. The weight of yours at 10 grams is a bit high, but these sometimes were that heavy - this Diocletian is 9+ grams.

http://old.stoa.org/gallery/album306/64_Diocletian_Tyche_standing_2?full=1
This is one on which the regnal year is spelled-out rather than represented with the modified Egyptian heiroglyphic for year => "L" and a Greek numeral or two.