The Cheapest Otho Denarius I'll Ever Have?

Interesting coin and I agree that the rev damage is odd. It looks puposeful, like the prior owner was trying to remove the rev details, but not in an orderly way such as if this were going to be mounted or turned into a love token. Also, some of the gouges look pretty large and have exposed deep portions of the coin. Those inner recesses all look like silver, right?

Exactly my thinking why this likely isn't a fouree. I'll be interested to hear what some of the other folks think as well.

Otho wore a "rug" did he not ?
(he is one of my MIA's ..... no bronze !)
This fellow shows quite a bit of roof

I am tempted to think it may have been a low grade Vespasian that someone tooled to make it look like someone they know.
A gift for uncle Willie.
Either way it appears to be unique !

Occam's razor says assume it's an early Vespasian and work from there.

That said, I don't see any indication of a laurel, nor signs of removing one. Vespasian issued very few bare headed denarii, none of them facing right.

Where is the fake sellers list please?

Paul

Thanks!

I'm sure it's not Otho, Paul. The features are not right. A bare headed Vespasian is a better candidate, despite the rarity factor. Another better candidate is Vitellius. His entire first series of coins was bareheaded, and he also has the portly look we associate with Vitellius. But judging by the appearance, I would look for someone from the Imperatorial period. Some of those coins had a portrait on both sides, one of which may have been effaced on your coin. RSC illustrates such a coin of Lepidus and Augustus which actually could be a candidate. Late Republican figure perhaps?

As to the defacing of the reverse, I would not read too much into that. It may have been done as a dammnatio (intentionally misspelled), of course, or it may have been done centuries after the fact as a special prep of the reverse for mounting the coin on something portrait side out. Since the obverse inscription was already naturally effaced, no need to deface anything there. What is left is an image of a portly old man.