Domitian Denarius Not Sure On This One.

I don't have a good feeling either ...

orfew (Andrew) is our expert on Domitian Denarii he would be able to say for sure. IMO the coin looks OK. The surface does appear to be porous and the letter look odd, but that could be caused by what environment it was exposed too.

You were quite right to be suspicious. In my opinion it is a modern forgery. The key for me is the nose. If you look at the early portraits of Domitian they all have a very unflattering nose. The nose has a bump and an angle. This coin of Domitian has a very angular smooth nose. I suspected it right away for this this reason. I then had a look on forgery network and noticed examples that are very close to the OP coin and also have the smooth angular nose. In the years after 81 CE the nose becomes smoother and less realistic. As the OP coin was supposedly issued under Vespasian we should expect to see a realistic and unsanitized nose. Take a look on Acsearch and search for Domitian pegasus. You will see what I mean.

The images on forgery network do not show a die match. However, they are very close in style to the OP coin. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Orfew very nice description - very Sherlock Holmesish - Nose looks very much like a denari of Tiberius - My first impression was that it was suspect, but I would not have condemned it.

Well I received a reply from the seller and I posted another post with an update but it was deleted, I am not sure why?

Anyway here is what the seller had to say:

Hello We are very sorry for this situation, we also have numismatic experts who check every single coin from our store, .We do not sell copies of coins. There is no way to allow this. But to resolve the dispute, please request an opinion:


(URL of another Ancient coin forum)(This is probably why my other post was deleted I assume but not sure)

Identification_Your_Ancient_Coin_.html We will accept the opinion of them. .Please send a picture of the coin there, for free, we hope to resolve the dispute. Thank you and keep us posted.

Since the seller apparently does not have a reasonable return policy you might as well name them
They deserve the recognition
BTW
I didn't have a huge problem with the proboscis
But the ear jumped right out at me
It may actually be the sprue point
The edges are a definite giveaway
They look to have been flattened

A quick look through half his inventory doesn't show anything very suspicious
In fact they look like decent quality lower end ancients mostly auctions
I think you should try "honey"
Tell him you are dissatisfied and want to return the piece
It's fairly standard practice with 'online' purchases

Of course you will probably need to pay the return postage !
That's also fairly standard

I have a feeling that he is an honest seller, but
occasionally a sus coin can have it's own luck to escape seller's scrutiny.