Unknown Coin

It is a fantasy coin. The design is very, very loosely based on ancient coins of the Seleucid Empire, but the "herd of pigs" or "herd of elephants" on the reverse was never used on a genuine ancient coin. There are several different varieties and they have been making them since at least the early 20th century, possible even earlier.

http://steki-syllekton.gr/index.php?topic=14554.0

THIS is a translation of the first post

A friend brought me today a coin and insisted that it is very uncommon because the top has d seven piglets insisted that it costs more than 50,000 Euro because there are only two known in Greece.
When I hear such stories I wait to see the face that one makes when I tell the tale and reveal what it is and they think they have a fortuent in their hands.


These coins were struck by gypsies the period 1895-1905 . They were were channeling the rumor that there is an ancient coin of King Selvyrou on one side that in an appearance depictsand the uther side shows pigs and piglets.and try to sell these coins to gullible buyers
Usually they made from cast oreichalko.they were made in diggrent shapes and sizes and have no value of course.

We've seen them several times on the forum before and I've seen a couple on coin dealer scratchtrays here in Australia, so they're certainly not rare.

Here's one which has the "pig-herder" on the right.

Here's another which is more like yours.

This thread discussed a couple of them that were sold on eBay. There's no pics and the eBay links are long extinct though the links to the FORVM database, where a few of the different types are posted, are still good.

As for the "King Selvyrou" story, I'm assuming the fake coins came first, and the story explaining them came afterwards. That's because, as I said in the other threads, the obverse legend is actually a blundered Seleucid legend: instead of "BASILEWS SELEYKOY"; it now reads something like "BASILEW SELBYKOY". I think it is on the earliest versions of this coin that the "pigs" look more like "elephants", as elephants would fit in more with a Seleucid theme.