First, I'm not an ancient collector, though I seem to pick up a little of everything numismatic. Anyway, I've had this coin for a while, it just caught my eye and came home with me. I think the seller is reputable, and he had it labeled as a Philip I tet from Antioch. I've done some looking on wildwinds but haven't got it nailed down. Thought I'd see what I could learn from you all, maybe get a reference number, etc. I'm no photographer and the color is off, but here is what I have.
Looking at the legend, it looks to be Trajan Decius rather than Philip with a legend something like AVT K Γ ME KY ΔEKIOC TΡAIANOC CEB. Look toward the bottom of this page under Antioch… there are many examples of similar coins for comparison: https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/trajan_decius/t.html
To help point you in the right direction…that is not Philip, it is Trajan Decius. Edit: looks like OJ posted it a few seconds before me
Sorry, while I see no reason from the photo to believe the coin is fake, a seller who can't separate Decius from Philip does not know enough to be a trusted source. He may be as honest as they come but that is not enough. A seller or the buyer needs to be knowledgeable enough to tell real/fake and ID. It is a common coin. when you search under Decius, Antioch you will find all you want to know. Mine is a bit different so its catalog numbers would not match yours.
The worst coin dealer I went to was a shop that specialized in bullion. Every one of their two dozen or so ancient coins were horribly mislabeled and overpriced. A high grade Probus was advertised as “follis of Roman emperor.”
Not all dealers are skilled, especially those who don't specialize in ancients. Mistaking Philip for Decius is not something an average-skilled dealer would do, especially since the legend is readable. Either he attributed it without paying attention or he bought it with an incorrect label and didn't check. ... or he didn't care. I bought a few coins from a seller who sometimes, rarely, has ancient coins. They are usually in 2x2 flips (this is a term I learned from American members, as we don't use inches ) with a small paper label, hand written decades ago. For me it is clear, those were the remains of an old collection that was cherry picked multiple times and the available coins were the ones that didn't catch anyone's eye. Extremely worn, very common. One of the errors in attributing was a MFB litra labelled as Gela. It is in fact Panormos. Understandable at some degree. But on others the labels tend to be funny. Because the coins were mixed in their flips and I bought a Siclily Katane bronze from late 3rd century BC - proudly labelled as Nerva. When the coins are not labelled, he has no clue but he tries to improvise. Last time he was showing me a veiled Constantine. For him, it was an Antonia. I wrote here that he also taught me that portraits with spiked crowns belong either to Antoninus Pius (if 3 spikes) or Gordian III (4 spikes). That's it. So now you know! He is not trying to deceive anyone but for some reason he didn't manage to learn anything about ancients. The only thing I do with this kind of people is making sure I can distinguish what I buy and if I am not confident about authenticity, skip.
Well, this coin was handled by a guy that sells on vcoins, though that isn't where I bought it. At least I'm pretty sure it's the same seller.
Most dealers are like this if they are not world or ancient dealers. Most think old=expensive and every crusty POS they have are at least $20 "antiquities". It gets old, but cherrypick if you can, and leave the dreck for others with less knowledge.
Thanks for the input everyone...I might as well learn as much as I can. So, I paid $83 for it back in January 2019. Is that reasonable? Is it off center enough to make it undesirable? What would you grade it? What else good or bad can you tell me?
longshot, You overpaid for the coin . On today's market coins of that quality are worth $35/50. Not only is the coin struck on an irregular flan, it was struck from well worn dies, & the obverse is struck so far off-center that the coin is unidentifiable for type. Notice on the coin Doug posted that the 3 dots below the bust are clear, making the coin easy to identify by type. Nearly all of the Tets struck in the reign of Trajan Decius identify the officina by the number of dots below the bust. Pictured below are a few from my collection.
