Real Or Not

If that coin is real, I bet it's a barb.

I'm easily fooled by these Greek coins, so I have no clue. The auction ends soon and my bid will be determined by this coin. Why do you say it is a barb?

you should definitely try to e-mail DVC and get his two-cents ... God knows it cost me more than Two Cents having to send it to David Sear for peace-o-mind!!

... it does look a bit "different" than the Athens coins ... but again, I love my owl because it is "different"

=> so again, you should probably try to e-mail Kurt directly and ask him what he thinks (he's pretty awesome at quickly finding fakes)

Someone bought a fake, IMHO.

Bing, I think that you dodged a bullet ... ummm, even if that coin was legitimate, then you would have been the proud owner of the ugliest Athena portrait, "ever"

I have just bought an auction lot of fakes. From that, my experience is that it is hard for me to pick the good quality fakes from a screen picture, but is much easier to pick them in the hand. Tourist fakes are much easier to spot from screen pictures.

It must be remembered the Greek Government forbids the export of genuine ancient artifacts, but is quite happy to permit the sale of tourist copies. None of that however, stops the production of high quality fakes for the intention of deceiving collectors. They can be made in any country, particularly Bulgaria, of recent times.

Stevex6 has posted some very good quality pictures that include the edge, which are a much better diagnostic help.

Gil-gilad may be onto something, but I don't like the lumps on Athena's cheek. The style does not look native Athenian. The metal looks good on the screen

jwharper: do you know the weight of the coin you are interested in?

No, the seller did not give details. The coin in question was being sold in a lot which included a Galba coin in which I was interested. The owl coin was not the reason for my attention to this lot, but, if real, it would have made a good addition to my collection. Sadly (or possibly good), the lot went for more then I was prepared to offer. For me, this is normal. For every one coin I acquire, there are probably 20-30 others that go past my budget limits. In this case, I believe the lot sold for more than $100 but I quit bidding long before it got to that point.

I remember you Sel_691, DVC, Doug and even Bobbyhelmet saying that if you have questions regarding authenticity, it's probably best to leave it alone. I'm not real comforable with Greek coins, so when I see something in which I may be interested, I will ask. Thanks again for all your responses.

I have recently become more comfortable with ancient Greek coins. I have been collecting Roman coins for 30 or more years, still learning.

I managed To get a very good book on ancient Greek history which covers the time from the end of the Mycenaean era to the time of direct Roman government. Found it for $2, at a garage sale.
I have had for many years a very scholarly book by Charles Seltman, which traces the development of ancient Greek coinage in detail over the same period as above.
I have had for a couple of years David Sear's two volumes on 'Greek coins and Their Values'.

I have a a copy of 'Numismatic Forgery' by Charles M. Larson, which gives excellent detail on the manufacture of forged coins. This work is enthusiastically endorsed by Ken Bresset, a past President of the ANA.
I have a copy of 'Classical Deception' by Wayne G.Sayles.
I was lucky enough to successfully bid on an extremely useful reference lot of ancient Greek fake coins comprising about 50 examples.

I have read in detail the websites by
tesorillo and Calgary Coins,
that relate to ancient coin forgery. These two are the best I have found so far that relate to forged ancient coins.
I refer often to the Wildwinds and the VCOINS websites.

I therefore consider that I may now be a half baked beginner, taking the first steps in assessing the authenticity of ancient Greek coins for myself. I started way too late to ever be able to attain 'expert' status.

Still not confident on assessing the authenticity of ancient gold coins.

If you can think of any more references to ancient coins, I would sure be happy to know, I am still learning.