I know nothing of ancients and have never posted in this forum other than entering in Lord Marcovans giveaways. A coworker gave me this coin knowing I collect, I have no idea what I have.
It looks like it may possibly be a fractional stater from the Kingdom of Lydia, Croesus, Sardes Mint. Need a better image and weight/size.
Isn't that a lot like saying that I'm healthy other than being dead? If that edge does have a seam as it appears in the photo, the chances of the coin being genuine and worth three digits is rather small. On the other hand, do co-workers usually have a coin like this let alone give it away. We might start by showing an edge photo but I would not get up hopes quite yet.
Correct it does appear to have a seam which I did not notice until actually viewing the enlarged photo I took. So it looks like another coin to add to my counterfeit coin collection (I collect those to), but for attribution can anyone tell me what it is copied after?
This actually looks like an eBay coin I bid on impulsively and won (September 1, 2019)... But after winning I requested a side photo from the seller (centsles)... They then easily refunded my money. I didn't realize they put it up again, and I don't know under what pretense (did they share it has a seam or that it was fake?).
I called my co worker and grilled him on where he got it. I told him it is fake. He said it was his moms and it came with a subscription of Readers Digest back in the 60's. He thought it would be funny to see me struggle with it
Supposed to be a trite (3rd stater) issued by Alyates, king of Lydia and father of Croesus. The trite is purported to be the 1st actual coin. They were minted from the deposits of electrum (mixture of gold and silver) found in the river Pactolus (ancient name?) flowing past Sardis in Western Asia Minor. The deposits also could contain platinum - like metal inclusions, and if the coins incorporated these inclusions, they would appear as cracks.
Looks like a lion & bull silver stater (c.560 - c.540 BC) from ancient Greek Lydia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia#First_coinage
If I recall correctly that company created a whole slew of replica coins covering several periods of history connected to material it was publishing back in the 1960's. They were not trying to fool anyone. The coins were marketed in silver, as replicas, but this was before a requirement that such coins had to be marked as copies. Once out there, some of them undoubtedly were confused with genuine old (ancient, medieval and early modern periods) I once got stuck with an 18th century silver coin that looked good. Only when I realized that it was not an exact match for anything real and tried researching it did I discover what it was, one of these 1960's replicas.
