I’m new here, thank you for any help, but has anyone ever seen this coin & is it authentic? Ty

Gavenadam1

numismagram

It's just a fantasy. There's a lot of this specific type that were mass produced. They combine an obverse of Constantine I and a reverse of a Judaean coin from nearly 300 years prior. No value unfortunately.

Sapyx

What you have here is a fairly common mass-produced replica ancient coin. It is actually a copy of two different coins, struck over 200 years apart, so there never was a single genuine ancient coin with this design.

The obverse is a copy of a Late Roman Bronze of emperor Constantine the Great, circa 310 AD.

The reverse is the "crossed shields" prutah of Roman-occupied Judaea, issued by governor Antonius Felix in the name of Emperor Nero circa 54 AD.

I do not know who made these particular fantasy/replica "coins", but my money would be on Reader's Digest. They like to make trinkets like this to advertise the books they make (this one presumably on ancient Rome, or perhaps on early Christianity). Unfortunately, the "coins" tend to hand around long after the book deal is over.

abcde12345

What we have here is a failure to authenticate.

Gavenadam1

One of my favorite movies

Gavenadam1

@Sapyx said:
What you have here is a fairly common mass-produced replica ancient coin. It is actually a copy of two different coins, struck over 200 years apart, so there never was a single genuine ancient coin with this design.

The obverse is a copy of a Late Roman Bronze of emperor Constantine the Great, circa 310 AD.

The reverse is the "crossed shields" prutah of Roman-occupied Judaea, issued by governor Antonius Felix in the name of Emperor Nero circa 54 AD.

I do not know who made these particular fantasy/replica "coins", but my money would be on Reader's Digest. They like to make trinkets like this to advertise the books they make (this one presumably on ancient Rome, or perhaps on early Christianity). Unfortunately, the "coins" tend to hand around long after the book deal is over.

Thank you, there are so many on the market now it’s ridiculous. I had suspicions when the coin was clipped but not a precious metal. I was just confused as to the symbol on the reverse. What does it mean if you know & don’t mind telling me. Thank you very much! Travis

Sapyx

As I said, they are "crossed shields", with two spears behind. On the other side of genuine coins is not a portrait (Jews didn't like handling coins with portraits on them, and the Roman occupiers were (usually) sensitive to this) but a date palm tree. You can find numerous authentic examples if you do a Google image search for "Judaea Felix crossed shields", such as this example on Wildwinds.

The oblong "shields" are actually Germanic in design and not the type of shield used by either the Romans nor the Jews, nor anyone else in the Middle East; Governor Felix actually borrowed the "crossed shields" design from Roman imperial gold and silver coins issued over ten years earlier under the reign of Claudius, which were commemorating a military victory by Claudius' father over the Germans. The original Roman coins had a Latin reverse legend, while the Judaean coins (and your replica) have Greek - the letter "K" is not used in Latin.

Gavenadam1

Thank you very much