Lot Of 6 Roman Coins - Nero Tetradrachm Doubts

It's gotten to the point where I can't tell any more. This type is often faked and the forgers are getting better every day. Knowing that I usually stay away from this type.

The details look soft but it is hard to say if it is from being cast or honest wear. Since you got 5 other coins that you are happy with I would keep it. I have bought lots were I received a fake coin but was happy with the others in the lot so I did not return but informed seller.

One of the problems with genuine coins of this series is that they were made from poor quality billon.

They can suffer from differential surface corrosion, which can mimic the same surface of a cast fake.

Hard to pick this one from pictures alone.

Probably the best you can do is take it to a bullion dealer or scrap jewelry gold buyer, who has a hand held XRF instrument.
Ask them to look at the amount of trace metals that would indicate and ancient alloy.
A modern alloy would only have copper and silver and perhaps other metals such as zinc.
The ancients did not have access to modern electrolytic refining techniques, and so were not able to remove a whole rage of other trace elements from the alloy.

If you are not able to have it XRF tested and you don't feel happy about it, then I think you should return it.

It may be helpful if you could show us the all of the 6 coins in the group, together.

I'm not the best at picking out counterfeits, but my spidey sense is tingling on that tetradrachm also. The others don't look problematic to me, at least in the sense that they all look struck to me.

To @sel's point, can you please post a couple edge shots of this one? Looking at the rev pic, from about four to six o'clock looks kinda like there might be a parting line. If it has a parting line, then it was cast and is therefore definitely fake.

I should have the coins in my hand tomorrow. I'll take pics of the edge. Normally, I could never afford this coin so I want to be fairly sure before I return it. Hopefully, he will do a partial refund and I'll keep the rest.

Well for what it is worth I would say the edge looks genuine. Looking over the coin with the edge considered I would not send it back and I'd personally feel the coin is fine. But that is just my opinion of course. Certainly not screaming a major problem to me. Might just be a coin that was, as another said, made of soft metal and weathered this way. I put up two closeups from your photo. The coin does not look obviously bad to me and again just my opinion.

Me too.

Hi Guys

I know this is an old topic but I just saw this and found that my Nero tetradrachm matches this very closely. So now I am a bit concerned that the one I have and the one from TravelCoin both could be fakes? Please provide your thoughts.