Corinth silver stater help

Hello, I just wondered if anyone might be able to give me any information on this silver stater. I bought it when I was young from a kind of bric-a-brac shop in Crete. I assumed it must be a fake coin as I only payed pocket money for it. I bought it before the internet so didn’t really think of researching it. It has been in a drawer for years. I just found it the other day and with the power of Google, I am beginning to think it’s real and from around 500 BCE! I would be really interested to know any information or opinions on it.
Thank you in advance for any help.

 

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Hello @JenM. Welcome to the CoinTalk ancients forum.
I'm not an expert in Corinth silver staters. However, I think that, there are probably some experts on such coins, on CoinTalk. The experts will probably provide their opinion, eventually, although it may take a few days. One thing you can do, is to go to the following web site, and do some searches.
https://www.acsearch.info/
For example, the following search : corinth stater pegasus
If I remember, on the above web site, if you want to see the large photos of the coins, then you have to sign up, but it's free. If I remember correctly, you just have to provide your email address, and choose a password. If you want to see the hammer prices, then you have to pay money. I use the above web site, more than any other, when I want to try to authenticate an ancient coin. I believe that, one of the best ways to authenticate an ancient coin, is to compare the coin, to photos of other coins of the same type, which have sold at auctions, which is what the above web site allows you to do. If you can find examples of coins, in which the design/details of the coin look like your coin, then that's a good sign.
Sometimes, one can tell if an ancient coin is fake, by looking for things such as circular pimples, or circular holes, which are often caused by bubbles of air, during the casting of authentic coins to create fake coins. Also, if the edges of the design/devices are soft and not sharp, then that is often a sign of a cast fake. I'm not very good at analyzing such signs, but some ancient collectors seem to be good at it. Of course, some ancient coins were cast, not struck. However, from my limited knowledge of your coin type, I am pretty sure that your coin type was struck.
EDIT : Your coin seems to have a round pimple, above the head. Also, your coin has a round raised area, to the left of the head. Those may be bad signs. However, I'm not an expert, in analyzing such things.

 

P.S. : Your coin seems to have a round pimple, above the head. Also, your coin has a round raised area, to the left of the head. Those may be bad signs. However, I'm not an expert, in analyzing such things.

 

Thank you Sand, for your helpful reply. I will certainly check out that website. I have looked around and I can see many like mine but I have only found one that seems to be exactly the same. I contacted the owner and they said they had been looking for one similar themselves. I have attached a photo of their’s below. At least I know that mine was not cast as from this other coin I can see they are aligned slightly differently. From what I understand the square print on the head side suggests it is an older iteration of the coin.
I will wait with interest to see if anyone can tell me any more. Thank you again.

 

You're welcome, @JenM.
Also, you can compare the diameter and weight of your coin, to the examples on the above ACsearch web site. An authentic coin should be in the same ball park, depending on the amount of wear and corrosion of the coin. However, some coin types, came in different sizes/denominations.
What are the diameter and weight, of your coin?

 

I’m not sure if the weight as I don’t have any fine scales but the size is about 20cm across.

 

I think, that you mean, 20 mm, not 20 centimeters.
Even if it turns out to be a fake, it's an interesting coin, with an interesting story, of how you acquired it. I have a couple of fakes (that I know about, and perhaps some that I don't know about yet), which I accidentally acquired. But I keep them, because they are interesting.

 

Ah yes. Lol, you’re right, mm….I will weigh it and get on to that website. Thank you

 

Thank you for the welcome .
Well I have a look at the acsearch website and I can see a few similar but none I could say are exactly the same. So it’s either a fake or not very common.

 

The only one I found that I would say is extremely similar is this one that I posted before as a thumbnail. But the owner doesn’t know the history of his coin either

 

The closest example on the reference website was this one. But the Pegasus has a reign and mine doesn’t.

 

Hello JenM, looking at your coin and the second coin you posted, the two appear to be obverse and reverse die matches. While that doesn't necessarily confirm your coin is fake, when you compare it to the style of the Solidus Numismatik example (which definitely appears genuine), I would say that based on style your coin is probably not genuine (nor is the second one you posted; it just has an applied patina to simulate authenticity).

 

Ah, okay. Thank you for your comment. I appreciate you taking the time to have a look.

 

I thought it may be too good to be true that it was real. (For a bit of added background, I did not buy it out of a display case but out of a mixed box of ‘junk’)
The only thing I might say is that the patina looks very different in different photos. Here is another shot of mine along side a similar coin that has sold at auction.

 

Sorry, for some reason the photos became separated by the text.

 

Does anyone know the weight tolerance for these coins? I’ve just had it weighed at it is 7.96 g.

 

Looks like all the ones above that you have linked to weigh in the range of 8.2g to 8.4g.
I did a quick look at Corinthian staters and it says 8.6g the equivalent of 3 silver Drachmae (2.9g each)

 

a bric à brac shop in Crete? pocket money? Red flags, to me.