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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,001 |
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Pillar of the Community
Italy
1130 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2229 Posts |
Sellers should provide descriptions of coins for customers. I think it's a Greek silver drachm from Sinope, obverse nymph, reverse eagle on dolphin. That's not a crack. In ancient times fakes were made with copper center then silver plated. Someone in ancient times made a test cut to see if it's all silver. This one may be silver plated by the look of the test cut. You could check sold prices online for this type if you want like on CNGcoins.com and other places. Test cuts usually reduce the value of a coin. Here's two of my Athens tetradrachms, one is genuine all silver with a test cut, the other is an ancient fake, silver plated, you can see the plating gaps on the edge.   Edited by livingwater
10/16/2022 10:36 am
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Pillar of the Community
 Italy
1130 Posts |
Thanks @livingwater. This isn't for sale at a proper coin shop.. it's for sale at a consignment shop, which is how many things are bought and sold in Rome. Any reason to doubt it's authenticity?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2229 Posts |
It looks ancient to me, but I'm not an expert.
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Pillar of the Community
Italy
1130 Posts |
@living water... In hand, I didn't see a stark difference in the metal composition. The patina implies a composite of less pure silver... I'll do so research; thanks for your help.
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Moderator
 Australia
16817 Posts |
Deep "test cuts" like this are usually a sign that the coin was dug up in Egypt.
The ancient Egyptians were very slow at adopting the concept of coinage, or in seeing the convenience of handling precious metal in coin form. All ancient coins that arrived in Egypt in trade were treated as bullion - and every single one of them was smacked open with a chisel, to make sure it was solid silver or gold all the way through. Sometimes, they'd chisel a coin clean in half.
Of course, merchants were reluctant to take such mutilated coins back to Greece. Which is why most of these "test-marked" coins stayed in Egypt.
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
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Pillar of the Community
Italy
1130 Posts |
@sap, thanks, as always, for the information.
I have done some research on the coin and I am finding many similar examples but with writing on them.
Any thoughts on this one? Likely authentic?
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
I can't help being tempted to think that it is a silver plated fake.
Evidence of plating obvious on the edges of the cut, base metal underneath.
Green color color patches indicate the presence of a high concentration of copper in those areas.
The very constant thickness of the flan is not reminiscent of ancient coinage.
Small wonder why the Egyptians liked to severely test cut foreign coins, modern repro or ancient.
My 'gut' feeling would be to walk away from this item.
Unless, as I do, buy it as a fake, to add it to my 'black' collection, for my own education, be be familiar with fake coins.
But the very reduced price would have to be right.
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Moderator
Australia
16817 Posts |
Quote:
I can't help being tempted to think that it is a silver plated fake.
Evidence of plating obvious on the edges of the cut, base metal underneath.
Green color color patches indicate the presence of a high concentration of copper in those areas.
The very constant thickness of the flan is not reminiscent of ancient coinage. I would agree, for those reasons. The test-cut seems to have punched through the plating, revealing a baser metal underneath, and there's an outbreak of green which we shouldn't be seeing on a fine silver coin. I would presume it to be an ancient fake (contemporary counterfeit), rather than modern, simply because I don't think the fake-makers are mutilating their own coins at his stage. 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
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Also considered that it may be a contemporary fouree, but the fabric of a constant thickness led me my thoughts away from that possibility.
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Pillar of the Community
Italy
1130 Posts |
Thank you all. I'm going to pass; it didn't feel right then and after all of your comments feels less right now...
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,001 |
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Posted 10/16/2022 10:24 am
