I ran errands at lunch time yesterday and found another antique store. They had a small case of coins, and I bought several. I even deviated from my silver dollar trend and bought other coins (and a token and a medal). This coin is very circulated and slightly corroded. I assumed it's "ancient" or fake. It was only a couple of bucks and I bought it for the history. Looks like copper or bronze, heavy, and is about 26mm in diameter and about 3mm thick. What is it? When is it from? What is it worth?
You might want to take a look at this: http://tinyurl.com/663e4 Obviously your one is not in near as nice condition, but it's the same coin type. Ian
Thanks Ian. The reverse looks identical, but the obverse is a little different. Mine has a flat base at the neck, the link has a raised V neck... and the poney-tail or ribbon at the right of his head is shaped differently. Are these just variations of the same coin? Thanks again.
I'm no expert on that particular coin type so I cannot say anything for definite, but I think it's just a minor variation. You have to bear in mind that unlike todays machine produced coinage, these coins were struck individually by hand and using different (hand made) dies. That is, the dies used to strike the coin with would probably need to be replaced every few hundred or so coins. None of the replacements would have been exactly the same as the one that went before...or the one that would come after. Hence there will inevitably be (over the lifetime of the production of the coin) considerable variations within the coin type. Ian
