Posted 09/22/2009 8:23 pm
The first three are definitely fake, and I suspect the last two are as well. You've got:
1. A fake British halfcrown. It's supposed to be silver.
2. A fake Bolivia 8 soles. Ditto.
3. It appears to be the same design both sides. It's based on an ancient Roman follis (a late period bronze or silver-washed coin) of Maximianus; the copyist has mis-read a badly engraved "A" and mis-spelled the name, it's supposed to be "MAXIMIANVS". The Romans did sometimes make "two-headed" coins, but the second head is always a different person than the first.
4. A "pre-reform radiate" of Diocletian. This one appears the "most genuine" of the five, but still looks a bit cast-fuzzy.
5. A large bronze (I assume a sestertius) of one of the Antonine emperors; I'll look it up when I get home. Frankly, this one looks "too good" to be just sitting around someplace.
1. A fake British halfcrown. It's supposed to be silver.
2. A fake Bolivia 8 soles. Ditto.
3. It appears to be the same design both sides. It's based on an ancient Roman follis (a late period bronze or silver-washed coin) of Maximianus; the copyist has mis-read a badly engraved "A" and mis-spelled the name, it's supposed to be "MAXIMIANVS". The Romans did sometimes make "two-headed" coins, but the second head is always a different person than the first.
4. A "pre-reform radiate" of Diocletian. This one appears the "most genuine" of the five, but still looks a bit cast-fuzzy.
5. A large bronze (I assume a sestertius) of one of the Antonine emperors; I'll look it up when I get home. Frankly, this one looks "too good" to be just sitting around someplace.
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
