Celtic Tetradrachm - Opinions Needed

to the community

I wish I could help but know nothing about this series. I'm sure others here do and will be able to help.

A bit of sleuthing shows this coin as unsold in Jan 2016:
https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=l...d=1394&lot=1

Roma Numismatics are Roman and Greek specialists and BNTA members, so it's unlikely they would have been fooled by a forgery:
http://romanumismatics.com/about/


Edit: Just noticed this offering from Roma:
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/...a97001207ffb

Top left is a similar coin, in worn condition and its reverse also shows some bubbling.

Well...unlikely, yes, but at the same time it's important to note that every major purveyor of ancient coins - auction houses and dealers alike - no matter how experienced they are, and no matter how many professional organizations they may belong to - has inadvertently sold some fakes at some point. Roma is no exception and has been called out many times. The pages at numismaticfakes, for example, are sobering and enlightening: https://numismaticfakes.wordpress.com/

It's inevitable given the number of coins they handle and the quality of some fakes these days. Personally I have discovered fakes among my purchases from CNG and Stacks Bowers, both well established, major sellers, of course, with fine reputations. In the Stacks case, my coin had been published (as I eventually discovered) some decades earlier, in the Bulletin on Counterfeits. Both firms acknowledged their mistakes and provided full refunds. They were entirely professional.

There are plenty of examples posted online, in some of the ancients forums and blogs, of fakes sold by Goldbergs, Nomos AG, Lanz, Kunker, CNG, Hirsch, and Roma, among many other big-player dealers/auction houses. Even experienced numismatists don't get it right every time.

Of course it's preferable to purchase from a trusted dealer (like those just mentioned) with years of expertise. But they do make an occasional mistake or two. In the case of the OP coin, I suspect all is fine.