What Is This Coin? What Century Is It From And Where? (Id: Readers Digest Replica)

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 5,201
HumanShield New Member United States 2 Posts	Posted 05/20/2019 03:24 am Anyone know when and where this coin is from? Whats it worth? Thank you. Report this Post to the Staff

John1 Moderator United States 56855 Posts	Posted 05/20/2019 04:52 am to CCF. Looks like an ancient coin,Rome maybe. It might also be a fake,give it a bit and members will help you. John1 Report this Post to the Staff
pilegicvs Valued Member United States 66 Posts	Posted 05/20/2019 05:09 am It's trying to be ancient Greek, but looks more like costume jewelry. My vote is fake. Good photos, though! Report this Post to the Staff
january1may Pillar of the Community Russian Federation 5174 Posts	Posted 05/20/2019 08:45 am It looks like it's one of those ancient Middle Eastern imitations of Athenian owl coins. (I could swear I've seen one of those with an owl just like that somewhere...) I think the portrait might actually be a bit too modern for this (can't recall any ancient portraits with such obvious eyeballs), but it's hard to tell, and I could easily be wrong. If real, it's probably from somewhere around 5th to 4th century BC. I sadly don't have remotely near enough expertise to tell whether it is real or not. That said, I'm mildly leaning towards real, for the simple reason that someone trying to do a modern imitation of an Athenian owl probably wouldn't bungle it that badly - especially not with such a well-made portrait on the other side! Similar real examples I've seen have sold for amounts on the order of $50-100, though of course it significantly depends on the size (I don't think the ones I've seen were tetradrachms...), condition and quality. Report this Post to the Staff
jbuck Moderator United States 188952 Posts	Posted 05/20/2019 10:06 am to the Community! Coin Collector Since 1978 Avatar Old Avatar 7070 Eisenhower Australia Canada World CCF Members on eBay CCF eBay Search Engine Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16842 Posts	Posted 05/20/2019 8:19 pm Hello and welcome. Sorry to be the bearers of bad news, but it's 100% certain that your coin is not, actually, a real coin. Quote: (I could swear I've seen one of those with an owl just like that somewhere...) You have probably seen it right here on this forum. We have seen this particular replica many, many times over the years. I believe they were issued by Readers Digest, or some similar mass-marketeer of books, to promote a book they were selling on ancient Greek history. They often seem to come in that exact same plastic capsule, so I assume that's how they were distributed. The telltale signs of this particular replica, for me, are on the reverse which is much more crudely rendered thant he obverse: the owl's wings have been reduced to two flat planks, and the face and eyes are twisted and assymetrical, like some kind of Edvard Munch painting. Some threads with examples: http://goccf.com/t/231047 http://goccf.com/t/193180 http://goccf.com/t/74453 To see what your coin is "supposed to look like", try the top coin on the Wikipedia article on tetradrachms. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
HumanShield New Member United States 2 Posts	Posted 05/20/2019 8:35 pm Thank you very much. Haha even the rough edges match on the pictures. Report this Post to the Staff
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