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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 7896105, member: 85693&quot;]I occasionally buy Roman denarii from the Ukraine, via eBay.&nbsp; As far as I can tell, they are genuine ancient, and very low grade. </p><p><br /></p><p>What follows is a guess, based on stuff I&#039;ve gleaned poking around online: there are a lot of metal detector finds in these areas, which were near the Roman borderlands.&nbsp; The barbarians only accepted payment in good silver, so, as was happening in the East, Roman good silver was sucked out of the Roman economy to pay for goods, mercenaries, etc.&nbsp; In the East, the Persians and Sassanians, etc. recoined Roman silver into local coin (Sassanian drachms are very, very common).&nbsp; The western barbarians didn&#039;t seem to coin so much, so the Roman coins circulated, a lot.&nbsp; Which is why they are so worn.&nbsp; My guess! </p><p><br /></p><p>But they do find lots of Roman coins around the Ukraine.&nbsp; Here is an article (with map) of the many Roman coin finds in the &quot;Barbaricum&quot;:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343479347_ROMAN_IMPERIAL_HOARDS_OF_DENARII_FROM_THE_EUROPEAN_BARBARICUM" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343479347_ROMAN_IMPERIAL_HOARDS_OF_DENARII_FROM_THE_EUROPEAN_BARBARICUM" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343479347_ROMAN_IMPERIAL_HOARDS_OF_DENARII_FROM_THE_EUROPEAN_BARBARICUM</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a huge batch of denarii found in a field in Poland - not sure about the &quot;Vandals Last Stand&quot; theory, but lots of coins - that these are denarii from Nerva to Septimius Severus pretty much matches what the Ukranian sellers&#039; listings on eBay:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/roman-denarii-0013499" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/roman-denarii-0013499" rel="nofollow">https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/roman-denarii-0013499</a></p><p><br /></p><p>But back to buying them:&nbsp; here is a denarius of Commodus I pulled off a typical Ukrainian eBay listing:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1363314[/ATTACH]</p><p>Here&#039;s another one, different seller:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1363317[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>These are very typical for these auctions; I just don&#039;t see anything modern or counterfeit about these.&nbsp; Why would anyone bother duplicating such wear and tear?&nbsp; The price for this sort of coin is about $25 with $5 or so shipping.&nbsp; I only bid on them if the reverse design is unusual, great portrait, etc. </p><p><br /></p><p>On the other hand, lots of Bulgarian denarii, etc., scream fake - very high grade, perfectly centered, unconvincingly ancient die work, a &quot;pressed&quot; look.&nbsp; There should be a lot of low grade genuine finds in that area too, I&#039;d think, but I rarely see them for sale.</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, this is an opinion, offered with very little evidence beyond poking around the Internet.&nbsp; Also, I am not in the Ukraine and I have no financial stake in the sale of coins from Ukraine, etc.&nbsp; And I have nothing against Bulgaria - a friend of mine is half Bulgarian and she is wonderful! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Okay, now these Ukrainian coins are ancient, I believe, are they really Roman?&nbsp; Here is an interesting article I just found, theorizing that the barbarians of what is now Ukraine were extensively copying Roman denarii:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/thousands-of-roman-coins-found-across-europe-and-thought-to-be-genuine-are-fake-say-archeologists-6520" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/thousands-of-roman-coins-found-across-europe-and-thought-to-be-genuine-are-fake-say-archeologists-6520" rel="nofollow">https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/thousands-of-roman-coins-found-across-europe-and-thought-to-be-genuine-are-fake-say-archeologists-6520</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Note that the article starts out noting scholars have long believed these coins to be genuine Roman mint products.&nbsp; Silver or base metal &quot;limes&quot;?&nbsp; Argh.&nbsp; I won&#039;t go there; others on Coin Talk know way more than I do about this and I&#039;ve already rambled too long.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie27" alt=":bored:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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