At my cafe (hey, I got a cappuccino for the price of a drip) the proprietor said "hey! Wanna see something REALLY NEAT?" He showed us
this coin
his friend, a numismatist, gave him. I copied down the inscription and used some Google-fu while he conducted business. I said I could come back with a camera and take images and try to look them up. He lent me the piece instead so I hotfooted it to my neighbourhood coin shop for a quick no-cost appraisal.
From looking at Roman Silver Coins I learned that the coin is not pure silver, but probably an alloy with maybe 2% silver, and probably a fake at that as it is a meld of two coins. Authentic Balbinus antonianus (denomination of Roman currency) do not have obverse/reverse image like the one displayed. But the fake is probably hundreds of years old.
I returned the coin to him with what I learned, wrote down some notes, and supplied the coin shop's card with e-mail address and the name of a company that does thorough appraisals at cost. My friend put on a good show of masking disappointment and shook my hand for my research effort.
Ancient Roman Coin or Not?
August 30th, 2012 at 11:19 pm
August 31st, 2012 at 05:27 am 1346390845
August 31st, 2012 at 10:45 pm 1346453113