Need Some Help: Horse ManAncient Greek Coin
Melior_Invenidiste
Posts: 123 ✭✭
Looks like half man half horse, maybe a centaur?
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Melior_Invenidiste
Posts: 123 ✭✭
Comments
Sorry, it's a common fake.
Agreed. Sorry, it's a mass-produced, mass-distributed Reader's Digest replica.
The coin being copied is a silver tetradrachm from the city of Gela, on Sicily. The figure on the reverse is a "man-headed bull", representing Gelas, the semi-mythical founder of the city. The blank space underneath the chariot-rider on the reverse is supposed to have the word "COPY" stamped there, but that stamp appears to be largely missing form this coin (perhaps the "O" remains).
See the large crater on the bull's neck? That's not supposed to be there. It's been deliberately put there by the replica-maker, to hold a blob of glue so the replica can be attached to a piece of cardboard, telling you all about the book Reader's Digest was selling on the history of ancient Greece.
Funnily enough, I've never actually seen one of these coins still attached to the cardboard.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.