I received this Syracusan stater in the mail today, purchased from an established dealer on Vcoins. After inspecting it in-hand, I think I understand why I only paid $440 for it. The edge, in a few places, demonstrate what I believe to be a lamination fault (rather than the coin being a fourree). I've read the edge flaking could have been caused by thermal stress, perhaps because of fast cooling when the coin was freshly struck. The coin seems to be the correct weight for a reduced-standard stater of this time. In my ignorance I did not pay attention to the signs of edge flaking in the dealer photo (shown first below), and the issue was not mentioned in the description. This is a first for me, and would love to have some other opinions on whether you all think this is the case as well. I like the coin, but was initially concerned about how the surprise could affect the value, and whether I should now consider the coin "fragile." Thanks, Jeremy Sicily, Syracuse AR Stater. Time of Agathokles. Reduced standard, circa 304-289 BC Obverse: Head of Athena right, wearing Corinthian helmet Reverse: Pegasos flying left; triskeles below References: Pegasi 20/1 Size: 21mm Weight: 6.6g
Quite clearly lamination damage, and the sort of flaw I'd expect a seller to disclose in descriptions as it's often not obvious in photos and does affect the value of a coin. Yours is very nice, regardless. I have a modest examples of one of these from the full weight series.
