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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1139748, member: 19463&quot;]This is a hard question.&nbsp; Most of us work by recollecting what we have seen before and then going to the appropriate book or website to confirm.&nbsp; A large, thick relatively round silver makes me think Greek of the later period (after Alexander the Great).&nbsp; The Eagle reverse makes me think of Ptolemaic Egypt (founded by Alexander&#039;s general Ptolemy I).&nbsp; From there you can go book and check the Ptolemaic section of David Sear&#039;s Greek Coins and their values (a beginner&#039;s reference) of search online for Ptolemy coins.&nbsp; Sear page 735 shows a couple coins that are similar and unillustrated coin #7773 shows the club if that is what I thought I saw on the photo even though it is unlikely that you will find an exact match since there are so many varieties.&nbsp; There are more specialized books but they cost good money and only specialists and book collectors would have them.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Online searching for coins of Ptolemy gives several hits including</p><p><a href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/egypt/ptolemy_II/t.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/egypt/ptolemy_II/t.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/egypt/ptolemy_II/t.html</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>which has a lot of pictures for comparison and very little more chance of an absolute exact match but starts in the right direction.&nbsp; At this point, I can&#039;t tell you which image is the closest match since the fuzzy photos we had here don&#039;t show minor details.&nbsp; The question of its being a fake leads me to</p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/thumbnails.php?album=20&amp;page=17" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/thumbnails.php?album=20&amp;page=17" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/thumbnails.php?album=20&amp;page=17</a></p><p>where I fail to find an exact match but wonder how similar it would be to a coin part way down the page that has several angles on a coin made recently in the middle East if we could see the details.&nbsp; Fakers are constantly coming out with new product so we can&#039;t be too hardline expecting to find every on on a list like this.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I&#039;m no expert in all ancient coins.&nbsp; I&#039;ve only been collecting for 45 years.&nbsp; There are some things I am more comfortable with and probably could be really certain of 99% of the coins I see.&nbsp; Ptolemaic silver is not my speciality so I&#039;d only bet on my guess here as a 50-50 proposition.&nbsp; There are a few people who present themselves as experts on everything but the best &#039;experts&#039; I know are more likely to claim a 95% certainty in most ancients.&nbsp; It is hard to keep up on a million different coins.&nbsp; That is why I don&#039;t recommend ancients to investors.&nbsp; They are more work than they are worth unless you also are getting some fun out of the process or stick to a very few very safe things with signed certificates of authenticity (never with guarantees).&nbsp; The safe investment is to pay top dollar and buy from full price dealers you have some reason to trust or by a few thousand dollars worth of books and go on a ten year crash course of study.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Some will say I am overly sanguine on the matter but if your <u>only</u> interest in coins is capital gain, I suggest buying something else.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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