I have started to sometimes collect ancients and have no particular direction to my collecting except what strikes my fancy. I have a desire to get a Roman Republic and have perused mostly e-bay. Most seem very expensive if they are at all decent. Just saw this one, but it just looks funny to me. What do you think?
It's entirely possible that the base metal in the alloy has leached out of the surfaces over time, giving it a rough texture. But casts can have similarly rough surfaces, so I tend to avoid coins like this, out of uncertainty. Perhaps someone with more experience in RR denarii can speak to the style.
There is a lot of variation in RR styles. This is not abnormal. The coin does look like the metal suffered in burial and cleaning but I see no reason to doubt the coin.
I agree with Doug and see no reason to doubt the coin, since many RR coins have rough or porous surfaces. But the rough nature of the coin makes it less desirable to RR collectors, and will make it difficult to resell. But this one has clear details, and is not a bad starter coin.
When I look at a coin with surfaces that are grainy like this I try to look at the steeper and sharper points of the devices(I.e. the outline of the lettering or the details of the helmet wing) to determine if the coin is a cast or not, as a cast using a substrate that leads to this kind of grainines would inevitably leave grainy details in the sharper areas. On this coin however, they are sharp as expected and the flow lines around those areas are as well so I think this coin is fine. On the issue of style it's perfectly normal for th type and period as well. Here's my example of the type. It was one of my first Republican denarii as well and still my oldest Republican denarius, but probably not for long.
Whenever I have any doubts, I google "fake" or "Imitation denarius" to find a list of sites that you can review and compare. FORVM has a great listing that I peruse. If you find a match (being virtually identical), then I shy away as virtually all ancients have differentiations. There are some great sites out there that I save to my favorites.
No, not cast at all. Just simple porosity. I have seen thousands like this. It is entirely different from cast examples. Genuine.
