Started this in a different thread but uploaded the wrong photo. ("Good one, Simo") A friend sent the photo to me with some questions that I am unable to answer, so I'm posing them here in the hopes that someone can give him some answers. Here's the coin in question: This is what he wrote about this coin: Perseus, son of Philip V, obv. Perseus diademed head right, beard worn, rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΕΡΣΕΩΣ, it has the monogram between the legs AN, and HP to the right, and is surely the coin of Perseus of Macedon, Wildwinds Mamroth 15. The outer ring of laurel wreath is missing as the coin is small, 22 mm, and weighs only 13.37 g, tetradrachms of Perseus like this weigh about 16.8 g. The patina and wear on this coin looks good, inscription is deep and clear. Here are the results of an (amateur) specific gravity test that he conducted: 13.36g dry 1.31 suspended weight 10.19 sg .800 fine silver Tetradrachms of this kind at CNG weigh 16.8 g., but .800 fine silver is only a little low, while total weight is low. Wildwinds cites Mamroth 15 for the inscriptions. Or it is not authentic. Anyone have any ideas that I can share with him about why this coin is underweight?
I've been watching your threads lately, this is the 3rd "underweight" fake thread in a row you post. I'm not saying but it sure looks like
There were two different coins that I was asking for opinions on. They aren't mine. A friend had emailed me scans. Both are outside of my collecting area, which is why I posted them to this group. Unfortunately, I uploaded the wrong photo for one of the coins. That's why there's a third post. Thanks for everyone's help. I will email my friend and let him know of the group's consensus.
As I said, this is not my coin, and I have no stake in whether it is real or fake. In fact, I was in the process of writing the owner to tell him that the consensus was that the coin is fake, when, whiles explaining the reason given, I realized that I still have a couple of questions. Summary: Silver is good (s.g. 10.19). Looks like a cast copy, but image is so poor (a scan from FedX!), this probably can't be confirmed without a better image. Fake patina? Perhaps, but could this be a thick, black patina that was harshly abraded from the high points? The coin is clearly underweight, but I'm going with the hypothesis that the coin has been severely clipped. There is no evidence of a casting seam or file marks, but you wouldn't expect them if the coin has been clipped after casting. Still, it's hard to argue with the apparent stylistic difference; the coin definitely looks "off." Unless this difference is an illusion caused by the remove of the field around the obverse portrait. So I popped a photo of this legitimate coin - https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2267452- into Photoshop and "clipped" it electronically. Here are the quick-and-dirty results along with the original photo right below them: And this is where I'm totally out of my league. Does the style still look off? I don't want to condemn this coin if there's a chance that it's just clipped. Thanks for your opinions.
I don't think there's anything else to say about it: Maybe if you're unwilling to relay the above message, tell your friend that some people on the internet think it's fake but you can't really tell unless you had it in hand. Or that you lack the experience to determine it's fake based on the evidence provided. It just looks so crude to me. I question the term clipped. How does that term apply to the manufacture of ancient coins? Is it even possible? Ancients may be struck off center but how could they be clipped? There is no collar, flans are manually struck...I an having a hard time visualizing how that error would occur.
Clipping or filing the rim of a coin, and that could be any coin, modern or ancient , will result in small pieces of silver or gold. If somebody does that with 10 or 20 coins its enough raw material to melt and make one new coin. Its of all times. Since there is no pic of the rim of the Perseus , impossible to say if it has been clipped. But I doubt that, since its an obviously FAKE.
Thanks for the reply @Andres2 . When I read clipped I thought of modern coins exhibiting these types of errors: I have normally, or mistakenly, thought of the process you described as filing.
It is undoubtedly fake. You can try and rationalize it but the coin just isn’t right, for the reasons others have said.
