Help Is This Commodus Medallion Real Or Fake. Weighs 58 Grams

For comparison, from the fake reports, a cast copy from a Paduan.

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You have a good learning tool with this piece. Study it and you will be able to identify a good coin from a fake one. Look at the strike how mushy and flat it looks. The patina looks applied and not natural. Look for bubbles on the surface, which would indicate a casting. Check the edge for a line running around it a sure sign of a casting.

Hi leojeter,

Cast coins almost always have a "soapy" like appearance and pitting caused from bubbles during the casting process. The seam on the edge is not itself conclusive as they are often filed away and sometimes convincingly so. In the case of your photo, it is too blurry to tell, but if you cannot see the small bubbles then it is because they have covered it with fake patina.

By "soapy" everything looks somewhat blurred and not due to natural wear (like your coin). It's what happens when you make an imperfect copy of something. You lose detail.

Best thing you can do is look up real examples of the type of coin you have and compare the differences.

Also there are lots of articles on how to detect fake ancient coins with photos - google them and you will see some of them come up. You have to look at the examples to learn what we are talking about.


Peter