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In the ground?
All ancient coins come from the ground; there's no such thing as a coin that's been "kicking around in various collections" for over 2000 years; no collections are that old. All surviving ancient coins have been excavated from some kind of archaeological context, relatively recently.
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...Lettering doesn't look authentic, either.
The coin is (or at least, it claims to be) a denarius of Marc Antony; the writing seems to match the style of coins of the time;
compare these examples on CoinArchives.
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A couple of years back I picked this up in eastern Europe. I payed next to nothing for it...
Right there is the biggest reason to mistrust the authenticity of this coin. Eastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria, is a renowned hotbed for fake ancient coins. And, as you can see from the CoinArchives references, this coin is quite scarce, and was both issued by and made to depict a famous historical figure (Marc Antony, of "Antony and Cleopatra" fame). You'll also notice that all the examples shown of this coin are in worse condition than this one is in, and they sold for over US$1000 each. Eastern Europeans aren't stupid; they know that if they acquire genuine ancient coins, they can get lots of money for them. They won't just give them away to tourists.
So... apart from it's provenance, what signs are there that it might be fake? There's the small "bubbles", particularly noticeable on the obverse, where Marc Antony (the younger-looking, non-balding fellow) has a huge "mole" on his cheek. That to me is a telltale sign of a cast copy; a "bubble" or hole in the moulded die has created an "anti-hole" on the coin.
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
Posted 05/23/2009 9:03 pm
to the community.
