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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lehmansterms, post: 3495108, member: 80804&quot;]I know I&#039;ve written this here before (and at greater length, no doubt) but &quot;fake&quot; is possibly the worst possible word you can use to describe coins which, for whatever reason, are non-standard (&quot;standard&quot; here is meant to mean official mint issue coins as issued by the original authority). &quot;Fake&quot; is virtually meaningless in this context.</p><p>With the exception of the foil-wrapped fourrées of the Republican and early Imperial period and some underweight and/or lower-grade silver pieces&nbsp; which are also encountered in the Greek coinage, none of these were made to deceive anyone. Generally they were made by neighboring tribes to copy the coins they saw working so well to facilitate trade in their place of origin. This is the nature of ancient (or &quot;contemporary&quot;) copies in general, particularly of Hellenistic-era coinages. If you&#039;re talking about modern copies - well, with the exception of just a few known cases, these may have been made to deceive yet really seldom are all that successful in deceiving (unfortunately, they seem to be getting better at it). But seriously, looking at the OP&#039;s coin, does anyone really think someone went to the trouble of creating a profoundly-circulated and worn example of a piece which is widely available for a few dollars as doubtlessly authentic and/or ancient? I include ancient copies here too - they are every bit as much &quot;ancient coins&quot; as any made by the original issuers.&nbsp; </p><p>About the only place &quot;fake&#039; even comes close to describing the situation is for modern copies made specifically to deceive - and it&#039;s a poor choice of words even there because it fails to define the category in any manner. Yes, they exist, but take another look - what are the chances the original coin would fall into that category?</p><p><img src="http://www.stoa.org/albums/Redactor/Histaia.sized.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>Modern copy meant to deceive? I think not</p><p>Ancient contemporary copy, perhaps.</p><p>Profoundly worn ancient official coin of less than the finest, early-issue style? That seems a lot more likely to me than any other plausible reason for this piece to exist.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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