I stopped at my local coin shop today. He has for sale what is described on the envelope as an "Eastern European Republic Denarius". It does not look barbarous in any way and looks almost identical to the Roman Republic denarius of Quintus Titus of ca. 90 BC (the one without a beard on the head) and the Pegasus on the reverse,. I had him weigh it for me, 3.8 grams. No signs of it's being a fourre. I asked why it had the Eastern European imitation information on the coin and he said it came in that way. Assuming the coin is genuine what does one look for to determine if it is some outside of the empire coin or simply a regular mint issue? Thanks
There have been a lot of unofficial Republicans on the market with stories of their being from Eastern Europe. Some are more convinced than I am that they were made 2000 years ago. Below are what I would call normal style for a denarius and quinarius of the type. I assume yours is 'wild' looking in comparison???
There were several groups who imitated these coins so there is no one particular thing to look for and it being a modern "imitation" is always a possibility. The best resource in English on these types is this website created by Phil Davis where he discusses a few hoards of coins and characteristics of imitations. Honestly though it's quite possible that the coin is simply a coin of less-than-fine style from the Rome mint. This was a huge issue that required several engravers with varying levels of talent and the coins show it. If I were you I'd take some pictures and share them here but honestly if you don't know enough to tell and the best your dealer can say is "it came that way" I wouldn't buy ancients from that dealer. Know the coin or know the seller.
http://www.academia.edu/1516327/Imitations_of_Republican_denarii_from_Moesia_and_Thrace The above also might be of interest. See figure 1 near top of image. +1
The top image looks pretty much like the one he says is the imitation coin. That's why I asked him. It looked pretty much like any other run of the mill Republic denarius.
My Q. Titius Quinarii and a Denarius from 90 BCE: Quinarii: RR Q Titius AR Quinarius 90 BCE PEGASOS Sear240 Denarius: RR Titius 90BCE Denarius Sear 239 Side-by-Side comparative: Titius Denarius to Quinarius
I'd like to ask the guy to have it certified. How does one send away a coin to be so certified and, I guess, slabbed, at the same time. I have never done this and want to sound like I know what I am asking for. Thanks
Hi Kevin, Here's a link to NGC that should get you started. https://www.ngccoin.com/submit-coins/how-to-submit.aspx
You can have it sent off to NGC and it will cost somewhere in the range of $25-$45 I believe but what's the point? It's a common enough coin that it comes up for auction several times per year and there are always examples for sale on Vcoins. Instead of spending the $25+ on plastic you'd be better off putting the money towards buying a better example of the coin from a better source.
Thanks for all your advice and information. I took my apparatus with me back to the shop and we did a specific gravity test on the coin. It came out to 10.53. I used an Ohaus electric scale and did the test twice. I am not sure what this indicates about the coin's authenticity. Still looks to me like a normal Q.Titius coin with nothing barbaric about it. I just may ask about him sending the coin off to NGC or my buying it, submitting it and getting my money back from him if it fails. I may do this just to get acquainted with the process as I have a few other ancients I have doubts about. Thanks again for the assistance.
Here are some ancient coin authentication services that don't slab the coins. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=authentication
Reading about these "Eastern European Imitation Denarii", an area I had almost no knowledge of, has been fascinating. Those sites recommended were very informative, but one question arose that I could not find an answer for. What was the silver content of these coins? I found a few fleeting references to their being low silver or fourees ( I am familiar with them) but nothing more precise. Does anyone know what is meant by "low silver" content? Are there any studies on what the alloy was? The early official Republic denarii were often of close to 100% pure silver as were the early Imperial ones, up to Nero, anyway. If the imitation of these denarii were of low silver were they an attempt to cheat users or were they quite acceptable for "barbarian" use? Any information on this, or other sites, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
There were both fourees and good silver denarii. This paper discusses results of metallurgical analysis done on a handful of "geto-dacian" denarii that were solid silver and the results showed relatively high silver purity for some of them. I'm on mobile and don't have a good way to copy the data down for you so I've attached a screenshot of the table itself(PM me if you want the full paper).
Thank you for that chart and yes I would very much like to see the whole of it when you can conveniently do that. Thanks again.
Kevin, CoinTalk member @Volodya (numismatist Phil Davis, Roman Republican specialist) has a paper which may help with your questions: https://www.academia.edu/29448651/Dacian_Imitations_of_Roman_Republican_Denarii The article includes pictures and there are a couple of Titius imitations shown.
