Vitellius

to thje community,

This coin looks good, nice find.

You have several thousand dollars spare to buy it? Because, if genuine, that's what this coin would be worth, in this condition. These "family" coins of Vitellius are his most sought after and expensive denarii, four times the price of "ordinary" Vitellius coins (which aren't the cheapest to begin with), and therefore one of the most commonly counterfeited.

It does indeed appear to be genuine to me; at least, I don't see anything obviously wrong with it in those pics. But I'd be very wary about buying ancient coins in Bulgaria, especially super-rarities like this coin.

But jwharper, I'd be very worried about yours. It doesn't look right to me, in surfaces and in style of lettering.

SAP: After I posted I looked at the pic of my coin and came to the same conclusion. In fact, I wrote echizento and said as much. On the obverse of my coin, however, the portrait is in high relief. I tried this morning to take a good photo of it, but my camera is not the best. I have appointments today, so I don't have much time to spend on trying to get a good image. I will try later this evening when I return.

As for rusevbg's coin, it looks good to me except the images of the children. I find them comic-like. When I look at the images of actual coins of this type, the images don't look that way.

Anyway, thanks for the input and I will post again later.

Regards

JW

AS Sap pointed out the lettering does looks odd, especially how wide the M's are. I can't honestly say either way real or not.

Yes, you are right, unfortunately, about my coin. I have come to realize how much of a match this coin is to the listed fakes. There is no doubt.

I think I have identified 6 fakes in my collection so far. Expensive fakes/mistakes. I read somewhere that most collections contain at least 10% fakes. If that is accurate, then I have about 35 more to find in my collection.

The mistakes I have identified have been entirely my fault in my rush to buy a coin without researching properly. Hopefully, those days are past me now.

Thanks to all for the input

JW

rusevbg is right here in Bulgaria it's selling a lot of ancients coins for very low price.I was bought one mark Antony denarius for 4 leva / 1.85 dollars and its authentic.
In Bulgaria are the best coin dealers

I had the opportunity to visit my son when he worked in Bulgaria (for the life of me I cannot think of the name of the town where he lived), and I too found way too many fakes for sale. I also purchased a coin from Bulgaria on ebay that was advertised as genuine, but turned out to be fake. I was able to get my money returned through PayPal, but I have sworn off any coin coming from Bulgaria. Of course, the problem there is that someone else buys a coin out of Bulgaria and then sells it from a different location to unsuspecting and gullible buyers (like me).

If the reputable coin dealers in Bulgaria could somehow purge out the fakers, perhaps their reputation could be rehabilitated after time passes. I would love to get my hands on some of the coin finds in Bulgaria, but, as of now, I don't know any dealers there to trust.

Regards,

JW