Is This Coin Fake? Is There Any Way Identify An Ancient Imitation From A Photo?

So far as I am aware, ancient coins were always struck from bronze dies. Iron dies don't come in until the Middle Ages (possibly because knowledge of how to make hardenable bronze was lost), and their adoption is associated with an extreme crudness of style. But I'm afraid I have nothing to say regarding the genuineness of your coin.

No, dies for ancient coins were made from bronze or iron, depending on what was being struck.


Just from a picture, the condition of this coin makes it tough to say for certain if it is genuine. Who did you buy it from?

This coin is supposed to be silver. Silver coins don't "rust". Ancient silver coins might get deposits of horn silver, but horn silver is never "silver-coloured", it doesn't look like lumps of raised metal on the surface of the coin.

So the presence of these raised lumps is concerning, as such "raised lumps" are often the sign of a cast copy. Making the mould for a cast copy sometimes creates little bubble son the surface of the mould - and an indentation in the mould surface will create a raised lump on the coin produced from that mould.

Welcome to CCF! It's either genuine with a lot of roughness and porosity or cast fake. This is a popular coin type showing Vespasian's victory against the Jews revolt starting in 66 AD.

One of the foremost experts on ancient Jewish coins is David Hendin. He's written several books, numerous articles. You might be able to contact him through the American Numismatic Society. If you get his email, send him pics of this coin for his opinion, he may answer.

My opinion it's a cast fake. If you have a coin store near you with XRF they could analyze it to see if it's silver. Through the years the Romans changed the alloy content of their coins, eventually debasing it like the USA did when it went from 90% silver to copper clad.

Even if it's genuine if seller accepts returns I'd consider sending it back for refund and save up for a better one.

I have a couple of these, here is one of mine. I got it from a long time ancient coin dealer for about 25 years, now retired. It's wise to buy coins from professional ancient coin dealers who have handled many ancient coins and offer returns/refund. One online store I like is Vcoins.com with multiple dealers.