Does this look like a genuine antoninianus of Vabalathus (Sole Reign)?

Hi all! I recently bought this coin, and am very excited, as it appears to be an extremely rare antoninianus of Vabalathus in pretty great condition.

The seller I bought it from has over 12,000 positive feedbacks, and sells unresearched Roman coins, almost all of which are common Constantine's, Aurelian ants etc. I asked the seller a few questions about this coin (i.e. where it came from, has it been cleaned etc) and they gave good answers. I managed to snag the coin... for £31?!

I know eBay probably isn't the best place to buy coins, but this coin looks good to me, as do all the other coins the seller has to offer.

Does it look legit? I know it's impossible to say for certain from a picture, but you've all helped me in the past, and hopefully you can help with this too.

Before purchasing, I made sure to check theforgerynetwork and Forum Ancient Coins, and couldn't find any die matches to fake coins.

The coin weighs 4.42g (which I notice is heavier than most other specimens), and is 20mm in diameter.

Also, if it is real, any idea on the value? I've seen similar specimens sell at auction for between £400 and £800, and I'm not sure where this stacks up in comparison. Not that I'd sell it (this will be a fantastic addition to my collection if it's real)

Thanks!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Here are the seller's pictures with harsher lighting if they help.

 

And some photos of the edge (sorry for the poor quality)

 

Looks OK to me.

 

Welcome to Coin Talk, Harry G. When you post photos here, you might want to hit the "full image" button - it pulls your photos up into your post so we don't have to click on the images.

I'm no authority on these (or anything, really), but it looks good to me. It seems this type is hard to find, at least compared to the "two headed" ones with Aurelian.

As for buying ancient coins on eBay, you will find a lot of debate on Coin Talk about its merits and flaws. As for me, I buy most of my coins there, but you do have to be careful (I recently got burned on a fake siliqua; it was a "calculated" gamble that did not work out). Most of the time I am quite pleased with my transactions, and for the most part, the prices are a lot cheaper than "real" coin auctions and retail sites.

A lot of us use the Forgery Network site to hunt out fakes - it is very useful, but for me it can be a bit tricky to use: http://www.forgerynetwork.com/default.aspx

Here is one of the two-headed Vabalathus issues with Aurelian (an eBay purchase):


Aurelian with Vabalathus Æ Antoninianus
(Nov. 270- Mar. 272 A.D.)
Antioch Mint - 5th Off.
VABALATHVS VCR IM DR, laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right / IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG, radiate & cuirassed bust right; Є below.
RIC 381 Є; Sear 11718.
(3.05 grams / 21 mm)

 

I'm no forgery expert either, but it looks good to me. I also have a two-headed similar to Marsyas Mike's. Welcome to Coin Talk.

 

Looks OK. Here's my two-headed example.

 

Looks fake, to me.
"Vabalathus" is misspelled....to my old eyes. Possibly a tooled forgery. Reverse legend seems incorrect.

 

Thanks for all your responses! They've been very helpful

There's definitely a type of coin like this. In his sole reign, "Vabalathus" was spelt with an h to make "Vhabalathus".
I found these coins in my research

https://www.romanumismatics.com/197...ype=&sort_by=lot_number&view=lot_detail&year=

https://www.romanumismatics.com/202...ype=&sort_by=lot_number&view=lot_detail&year=

(Sorry for the long links)

Why do you think it's tooled?

 

I was unaware of the added “h” in the legend.
It seems like I was wrong. Sorry about that.

 

No prob

 

Here is one with a "look alike" obverse portrait as yours.



Like you said earlier, yours is very heavy at 4.42g ( vs 3.20g for this one). But I don't know what that means... Anyway here's a good reading for you :
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42667232