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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Silverlock, post: 8232204, member: 98181&quot;]1) Probably not. It’s not an obvious fake or the dealer would have caught it. Some effort is required to deceive a knowledgeable dealer. Anyone putting in that level of effort would likely use a blank of at least approximately the correct weight. I’m assuming it’s silver (coated at least) and it’s not exhibiting modern methods. </p><p>2) Could be. Fourees are commonly plated base metal, and that could be the case here which might explain some of the weight discrepancy. That coin is quite light, though even when substituting bronze for silver. Fourees can be that poorly made, but again a dealer would catch that. </p><p>3) Probably not. Coins crystallized to the point of losing 40% of their mass are usually obvious on inspection. The photos aren’t too clear, but the surface doesn’t look heavily crystallized and nothing short of extensive smoothing could hide that. Again, the dealer would likely note the tooling. </p><p><br /></p><p>Another possibility for light weight (5-10%) is often wear, except not in this case. The coin is in very good shape and the weight discrepancy is too large for wear to explain it. </p><p><br /></p><p>Another possibility is a severely underweight flan. This apparently did happen on occasion in some mints at least. </p><p><br /></p><p>Another possibility somebody mentioned is the coin isn’t a drachm and is a hemi- or some such lower denomination. A quick search didn’t turn up any with this design, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t such a coin and I’m certainly no expert. </p><p><br /></p><p>Another possibility is the flan was intended for a different set of dies and you have an “off metal” coin. (Which would be very cool). </p><p><br /></p><p>Another possibility is the mint is wrong and it was struck by another city/state mimicking your location’s coins. Many regions mimicked Athens owls, for example, and you see misattributed ones all the time. Again, I’m no expert on this coin or location to know if that’s possible here. </p><p><br /></p><p>Another possibility, and one I kind of like, is it was left in an acid cleaning bath for too long. Perhaps there were discolorations or something after initial cleaning and the coin was placed in an acid bath. Assuming the surfaces were clean and evenly accessible to the acid the entire thing gets evenly thinner. I used to make “paper cents” this way as a kid. The design edges get a little rounded but otherwise it looks about the same just thinner. Your coin may exhibit this? Hard to tell from the photos. </p><p><br /></p><p>A final possibility that comes to mind is someone went to town tooling the features back into a heavily worn coin. I’ve seen coins where someone invested who knows how many hours recreating details nearly entirely worn away. That should be detected by the dealer. And if this is the case you have a keeper. Whoever did the work is an artist. </p><p><br /></p><p>After all that my guess is the weight is a typo and all will come clear when it arrives. </p><p><br /></p><p>Your dealer sells coins but primarily deals in artifacts. I wouldn’t be too too too surprised if they honestly got this one wrong. They’re a quality dealer and I’m sure they’ll stand behind the coin regardless. </p><p><br /></p><p>Good luck![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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