Do Silver Cast Have A Bronze Core?

Thanks and I really just like to classify what things are. You would just use some cheap silver in a totally modern casting process I imagine and it would be more work then it was worth to have a bronze core. Ancients did not electroplate as we know so had to be thin sheet of silver somehow applied but usually a fouree with a bronze core is struck correct? So my confusion.

I am so far from being a metallurgist that I'll believe just about anything you guys say. However, I don't think the ancients were limited to one process only for silver plating. Consider the differences between these two Roman fouree examples.

The first is a Republican fouree denarius emulating Lucretia 3 (Crawford 390/2) of unknown vintage (could have been as late as 1st century).






I chose this example because it has an abundance of overlay on the reverse, and very little on the obverse. Apparently the silver coating was applied after the image had been struck in the foil, which was thick enough that it tends to come off in pieces that can be more than mere flakes. The image of the reverse is rather telling both by the way the silver adheres, but also by the edge pieces where the silver is starting to peel off. Of greater interest to me is the fact that where the silver is mostly absent, all design detail has been lost including its relief. It is as if the design was impressed into the silver and then applied to a blank bronze core.


The second coin is a fouree of an Imperial silver denarius for Elagabalus.








Here the design details are plainly evident in the bronze core, with little silver adhering on either side. It is very obviously a much thinner silver layer than the other example, which clings to the design contours. It would seem this layer of silver was applied to a blank bronze core and then the design was struck with a well made die (possibly purloined from the mint?). Whether this silver was applied from a very thin sheet, or possibly by the action of some sort of chemical wash, I cannot say, but it seems to have been an action applied to unstruck planchets.

Albert, you missed my point. The Republican coin has most of its silver on the reverse, but NEITHER SIDE shows the design in the bronze core. Only one side shows the kind of deterioration about which you speak. The later denarius appears to show a different technique for manufacture.

CHRSMAT71;

About if it is a modern fake, here is how I feel for what it is worth. If you look at the site below that discusses making cast coins modern, silver was so cheap in the past 20 years, $5 an ounce quite often, there would be no need to have a bronze core if you were making it modern. So having the bronze core and no line around the coin kind of help say the coin is an ancient fake. But all I ever heard about ancient plating was a strike over the silver coated bronze. And this coin looks like it was made in a cast fashion so thanks to so many theories from folks above I have a few ideas as to what this is. Still I can't pin this down exactly which is a shame as everything needs to go in a box for me to feel comfortable looking at coins in general. Things like this can drive a person crazy really when you can't be sure what you are looking at. So again, if modern why the bronze core etc. And your example of the fake ancient denarius, yours shows signs like I normally see, your coin was struck over the silver directly no matter how they plated it. The letters have a higher side etc. My clearly plated coin looks like cast rounded blurred letters.

http://www.calgarycoin.com/referenc...kes/cast.htm

Bob;

Well that certainly answers the question once and for all with the first and third coin in your examples. The name of the strong was do silver cast coins have bronze cores and the answer is apparently yes. So that reference you are using, that says those two are modern fakes not ancient fourees I imagine? Though the middle one might be more important as the metal alloy in the center was not available to ancients so if they created that and silver plated it it has to be modern.

Here is my Tiberius "Tribute Penny" fouree.
I like it for a number of reasons.
The strong expression on the face of Tiberius.
The amazing wear of the coin, showing up the crime perpetrated so long ago.
It reminds me of the ancient saying "the wheels of justice turn slowly but grind exceedingly fine".

I think this coin has great "character", revealing the flaws of humanity throughout the ages. This from the point of view of the crime committed in debasing the currency and thus the reputation of the Roman Empire. But maybe also from the point of view of the forger, who may have had to support a hungry family in an age of considerable injustice.

Squire