My friends, the time has come...to lay down your Nero tetradrachms!

Nero/Agrippina Jr.
24-22 mm. 14.17 grams.
Struck 56/7 at Antioch.
Although it is worn and much of the legend is off the flan or weak, his name is visible beginning at 1:00 in
NЄPΩNOΣ
and her name also beginning at 1:00
AΓPIΠΠEINHΣ

Prier Nero 74. RPC 4175.

 

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Not exactly my field but nevertheless one of my favorite coins. It is actually lustrous in reality, very cool.

 

Last night I did a search through my files & found 3 more Tets of Nero that I sold at various Heritage auctions, included are the sale dates & the prices realized.


I bought this coin many years ago from an e-Bay vendor for $200. It sold on April 30, 2012 for $417.45.


This coin also sold on April 30, 2012 for $805.


This coin sold on January 16, 2018 for $1,920 ! Nero really looks pissed-off on this coin , maybe he didn't get a loud enough applause for one of his performances .

The FAKE pictured below I bought many years ago in Rochester, NY. It is the kind of fake sold to tourists visiting Israel & Lebanon in the 1980s.

 

I can't add to the list of reverse types, but I can post something neat (at least I think so!) Contemporary counterfeits of Roman Alexandria tets are rare, but here is one (the Augustus type):



My notes on the coin:

Ex Dattari Collection, from the E. T. Newell Luxor Hoard (1908). See Metcalf, Two Alexandrian Hoards. 1. A Hoard of Forgeries from Luxor," (Revue Belge de Numismatique Vol. CXXII, 1976, pp. 65-69).

Metcalf opens his article by remarking on the extreme rarity of counterfeits of Roman provincial Alexandrian coins, which still holds true today. In 2017 the CNG cataloguer noted they had seen only half a dozen, all originating from same hoard as this coin. The hoard was acquired at Luxor in March 1908 by the legendary E. T. Newell, before he became president of the American Numismatic Society (tenure 1916-1941). 76 pieces from the hoard were kept by the ANS, but evidently a few went to Giovanni Dattari; this coin is a Dattari plate coin. The hoard contained forgeries only, with many die links, and is presumed to have been part of the forger’s stock. They were probably made at the time of Hadrian since a few forgeries of Hadrian tetradrachms were included; hoards of genuine coins from that time show that Nero’s coins still predominated in circulation. Metcalf notes that these counterfeits would have been very convincing, despite their sometimes blundered legends. One hopes so for the forger’s sake, as the punishment for forgery was death!