18mm AE I don't know if the reverse is going in the right direction or not. Any help would be appreciated.
Welcome to CoinTalk. I'm afraid I can't help you with this one, except to say it looks interesting. A suggestion: providing the diameter (in mm) and weight (in grams) is helpful for identification purposes. Also, I am guessing you used a scanner for the images? You might try a digital camera or cellphone - the images tend to turn out a little better. Good luck!
The obverse portrait reminds me of a young Octavian, but I've never seen anything like that reverse before. Am I correct in assuming that the coin is bronze or brass? Can you make out any of the letters on the reverse?
Thanks for the responses so far . The coin is 18mm 8 grams bronze I am posting additional pictures that show partial inscriptions.
Hmmm. The new photos and info helps, but I am still stumped. The inscription on the back is definitely Greek - I see delta and omega. That narrows it down to Greek or Roman Provincial (east). Not much of a narrowing-down I'm afraid! My first thoughts were Thrace/Odessa - but a quick acsearch didn't bring up anything matching. If I knew what that reverse was would help. It is a puzzler. I'll keep pondering. Hopefully a more experienced CTer will come up with something. Thanks for sharing it - it is an interesting coin.
Notice that the Omega is facing outward. That's unusual, and it might help narrow it down. What looks like a V two letters before it is actually and upside-down Lambda.
whatever it is, it not an authentic ancient coin as the new photos make it even more clear that it is very poorly cast
I think it's some kind of weird fantasy coin based on an Athenian owl. I could be completely off base but this was the first thing I saw when I looked at the new pic of the reverse. Note this is rotated about 90 degrees counterclockwise from the orientation in the photo by OP
Thank you . I think I overlooked the obvious missing the signs of casting. I also see the owl. I brought lots of unidentified coins of all types years ago and still continue to return to the elusive ones .The internet certainly continues to expand reference material and I greatly enjoy revisiting the hunt for a coin's identity.In this case even as a fake it holds some wonder for me as to how and for what purpose it was made.
Sorry to hear about the "cast fake" diagnosis. Whenever something like this turns up, I am puzzled. Cast from what? I wonder. Obviously it is not a fake Athenian tetradrachm - these get faked all the time, but why fake one with a circumferential Greek inscription and a completely wrong obverse? This is so far off from an Athenian tet that I doubt it would pass as a "tourist fake." Which is to say it is still interesting, and not a typical fake (if that's any comfort). Owls were used a lot in antiquity - an acsearch "owl ae" pulls up 978 hits, with some interesting owls from Kamarina in Sicily that look more like the OP than an Athenian tet. https://www.acsearch.info/search.ht...s=1&thesaurus=1&order=0¤cy=usd&company=
