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 Replies: 11 / Views: 1,247 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
I picked this up for what I thought was a decent price for a Indo-Greek/ Bactian Drachm..  .Well I found that its actually a fouree. (A base metal coin plated in silver) I am not crazy about fourees but I figured I would share it.  It might be a ancient forgery of Menander I Soter...  Bactria Menander 155-130 BC AR (Fouree) Drachm 2.06g @ 16.6mm obverse: Crested Helmeted of Menander-Greek Legend- BASILEWS SWTHPOS MENANDOY reverse: Kharosthi Legend; Athena Alkidemos left with Zeus' Thunderbolt with shield; monogram right field. There also is what appears to be some sort of wax (looks quite old) on the edge and obverse upper right quadrant. I don't think that its anything a nice 20 min 97% Acetone reagent grade bath cant fix. and if that doesn't work, I have to whip out the big gunz and hit it with my own proven concoction of 0.01M Hydrochloric acid in 409  .Personally I am not crazy about the bronze/ copper showing through, but eh it adds character..   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
Nice and interesting coin. I just picked up a couple of Roman Republic fouree denarii, one of which dates to 105 BC. Just goes to show there were dishonest guys/politicians even that far back in human history.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1316 Posts |
Anoob, I don't have any fouree coins, but they seem to be very collectible. the coin looks awesome, you must look at coins 24/7.. Hows that newest noob doing getting any sleep..  |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5155 Posts |
Bing- Postem' up lets checkem' out.
Eng- 24/7 no no no...17/7 would be more accurate. I am very fortunate, I have a job I have been at for a quite a while and took great time and effort orchestrating a system where I get everything I need to get done and then some, while actually doing very little work. I spend a great deal of time "playing" on the computer and researching stuff, history, coins, reading the news, etc etc. I do have an iphone so any item is but a few key punches away. I am always vigilant for deals and numismatic oddities. I rarely buy from timed auction, I usually use the buy it now and best offer feature and deal with a small handful of sellers, unless the piece calls to me.
Home life is a bit different, because I am in the lab all day the wife is home with the baby (who is growing hourly) all day and is very exhausted when I come home, she makes dinner, I play and feed the baby and stay up all night sleeping a few hours in between, (I get called in to run analysis at night if there is a problem with any of the fuels). All while changing diapers, cutting grass, shoveling snow etc. and putting up posts on the internet...thats my life in a nutshell....and compared to where I have been, its not all that bad. Accept when her mother comes over for the sole purpose of driving me nuts.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4973 Posts |
that's a cool indo-greek AN, I'm totally cool with coins that have character (thankfully, because that's all I can afford). Just wait till little noob is up and running around...that's when thing start to get VERY interesting.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
AHHH...I can't wait ...for little noob to start running around...I am sure it will be tons of fun...but in the mean time...I can't wait for my two BARGAIN GREEK TETS to come in and some other Indo-stuff.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Well today I worked on dissolving the muck on the coin in 97% Acetone. I did not touch the coin or try to remove any of the toning. as to perserve the look of the coin. I merely dipped the coin the Acetone bath for 30 minutes, gave it a couple good sloshes and removed with tweezers. Here is the result, please compare with the OP image. Opinions, suggestions and or observations are always appreciated, I know there is a few cleaning officiandos out there.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
It appears the acetone lightened the coin in areas slightly--and the exposed copper core is cleaner?  I remember this one from the thunderbolt smackdown. So far, I haven't found another Menander fouree--have you? Makes you wonder how many Bactrian fourees exist? Pretty cool!  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
I have never seen another ancient fake like this one. Everything I have seen has been "debased" silver of the Hermaios era, but nothing like this. This is definitive a base metal core coin. Conceivably, they could exist in large quantities but I haven't seen any for sale. Maybe its a real rarity, especially considering the legend is like 90%.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1411 Posts |
It's really cool...
Nothing to say other than that!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
Good job Anoob. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1316 Posts |
Anoob nice clean up, since this thread started I have picked up 5 fourree's.. |
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Replies: 11 / Views: 1,247 |
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Posted 11/15/2012 7:08 pm
