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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 4960604, member: 39084&quot;]I have a few, admittedly inexpert, observations about this coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>First, there is a flatness to the coin&#039;s fields (both obverse and reverse) -- both a physical as well as a visual flatness (lack of light reflectivity).&nbsp; This is similar to other known stamped forgeries that have been posted on this site.&nbsp; It&#039;s possible that the fields have been smoothed, although it&#039;s my understanding that denarii are smoothed much less frequently than bronzes, especially a denarius that would have been purchased 15 years ago.</p><p><br /></p><p>With respect to the crispness of detail in Nero&#039;s hair, I think this may be due to an uneven/weak strike and an uneven flan.&nbsp; Look at the following areas on the obverse and reverse:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1192496[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>On the obverse, it seems to me that if the hair was tooled, at least some additional tooling would have been done to bring more definition to Nero&#039;s neck.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the reverse, the draped robe/toga displays a flatness that looks like a weak strike or possibly a thin flan that didn&#039;t reach the depth of the die when struck.&nbsp; It&#039;s unlikely that circulation wear would result in a completely flat area in the robe with little or no wear in the immediately surrounding details, making a flat strike the more likely explanation.</p><p><br /></p><p>I also observe that, in general, the detail on the obverse becomes less crisp as you traverse the coin directionally from 10 o&#039;clock to 4 o&#039;clock (cf. the left- and right-hand legends), which could be caused by an angled die, thus an uneven strike.</p><p><br /></p><p>A definitive determination of the coin&#039;s genuineness cannot be made solely from a picture, unless it&#039;s a match to a previously determined/known fake, so if I were the potential purchaser I would want it examined in hand by an expert.&nbsp; Personally, however, I continue to find the flatness of the fields and light reflectivity to be disconcerting.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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