So show me your best

rrdenarius · Nov 13, 2016

Ancient coins often are less than perfect. Doubling can be seen on all but the cast Roman coins. This one is a bit less common, it is a flip over double strike.

If you have a good imagination, print pictures of both sides, cut out the obverse and rotate it on the reverse, you will see the helmet feathers line up on the reverse.
I was hoping the coin was an overstrike of an earlier issue. The first clue I saw was the second dot border on the revrse.

The vendor's pic is closer to the true color.

Roman Republican silver denarius
Mint, Rome; 121 BC
Obverse – helmeted head of Roma, right, wearing winged & peaked helmet with visor in three pieces, cross shaped ear ring and pearled necklace: behind, mark of value – X; border of dots.
Reverse – Dioscuri on horseback charging right; below C.PLVTI; on tablet at bottom: ROMA
Cr 278/1
BMCRR 454, this reference lists a mint outside of Rome