Featured Philip II King of Macedon, The Quick and the Dead

Here's a virtual tray of Philip, Alexander and the Diadochi. Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus and Kassander.

 

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Like Father, Like Son

Higgledy-Piggledy
Philip of Macedon
Formed up the phalanx and
Harried the Greeks;
Murdered, he missed out on
Mesopotamia,
So, it's his son of whom
All the world speaks.

How about this one?


Philip II of Macedon
AE 6.30 gm; 18.6 mm
Obv: Diademed head of Apollo, r.
Rev: ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ, youth on horseback r.; thunderbolt below
Refs: Bellinger 43; SNG ANS 880 ff.

 

...ah, as soon as i spotted Phillip ll 'Greek' i thought of you @Alegandron ...here's my bronze 'tetra' drachm of ole Phillip 2...(Greek, of course ^^)(too tight of tets, but i got 4 drachms )

 

I am now the newly frustrated coin-parent of the whopper below, where I made a rash judgment on bidding on something I perhaps shouldn't, thinking in the back of my head that it would be a valuable experience to learn how to spot fakes. In any case, I could not find any instances of such a coin in the standard references (I searched the standard Ryder reference for silver coins struck by Philip II with Apollo on obverse and biga on the reverse with PHILIPOU underneath). I would say that the coin appears to be a drachma/denarius-sized version of a Philip II Apollo (obverse) / biga (chariot pulled by two horses) (reverse), which was originally AU, not AR (wrong metal) stater (wrong denomination) weighing in at 3.86 grams vs. approx. 8.1 grams (wrong weight) for the genuine version. The flan appears to have been created using a casting-like process as there is evidence of a tell-tale line around the edge. The surface of the coin has parallel striations in some places, indicating that the flan was filed. Putting these bits of evidence together, my preliminary conclusion is that the coin is a very artful forgery!
Let me know your thoughts on the pictures below.

 

The devices are too "fuzzy" and with all the evidence you point to, I would say that awful four letter word: F A K E

 

I am only out $30, so I am not completely miffed, particularly as through the experience I have discovered a vast trove of literature on the subject of how to spot modern fakes --- particularly Balkan/Aegean issues from antiquity re-died, or cast, or machined in the infamous Bulgarian forgery studios and elsewhere: caveat emptor, you moron (myself).

This Apollo/biga in AR from Philip II is similar: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=5.