Hello ladies and gentlemen, A colleague asked me to help him regarding a coin he found in Italy, decades ago. Unfortunately the conservation is worse than I was expecting (and I was not optimistic...) Weight is 22 grams, he can't provide the size. The reverse with 3 lines makes me think at a prow seen on RR coins and probably ROMA underneath - this would have been a start but the obverse .... I think I see a portrait facing right. Any hope for this?
Thanks @Ryro! I also thought directly to prow RR coins but I don't see the janiform head on the obverse. I am thinking more like a Saturn obverse. A pity the coin is in this shape - my colleague is not a collector but he seemed impressed when I told him the age of the coin.
You don't see the Janus head, because your picture is upside down. According to the weight of 22 gram your coin is from around 150 BC. Here's an Roman Republic As from 200 BC:
Thank you! The original pictures were rotated 90 degrees. I have never seen this coin in hand. The prow was a very good clue, but the way I rotated the obverse it seemed like a portrait facing right and the closest match was Saturn.
It's struck. I think it is earlier than 150s. Weight is so variable on the early struck bronze, much more so than earlier systems hoped it to be. This coin is very heavily worn and has lost metal at the sprue points, yet is still said to be 22 gms and presents a massy appearance. So it might be from the transitional period after/at end of the core sextantal period. Unless symbols show up on the reverse in different lighting, it will be hard to classify it exactly.
