Authentic?

ajaan

https://www.ebay.com/itm/276511582848?itmmeta=01J22A72ATTMJKN6XEGY0B364X&hash=item40615fea80:g:AaMAAOSwne9mbtX5&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA4AUTf5vWpzENgnyEvmoEOO6CyPWoAcsRkFe6YMVBj5x4EQzOW68wO6rk/NmqBwQnXVSCvjRYOZOb5nAZKqC5ygywVVpBBjGV2sPkng2pANyiVDwfvH92jG5nYnZinfJKiT721zpWzOBTOC1OS10/w/VXJTNusd9HNO0P5+J0im5SZIqtjNkBcTRMMRbkEeI4MMan9bX3UrzPxDXS6vudjvSENOoDMBpVJGgEjTQTJ5dpgWfh8/bNQfFVqMZOeoRwWOcnu7QvdPXCoX2VTGpX6qNHtuqYxgBfy6FjGozBG/YA|tkp:BFBMvKWcypBk

SimonW

I vote no

Sapyx

Stealing the pictures, for future relevance for this thread.

Now, to answer the OP's question about authenticity, we first need to work out what exactly it purports to be - if you don't know what it is, it is logically impossible to have an informed opinion as to its genuineness.

First off, we can discount literally everything that's in the seller's description, since it's all nonsense. The Roman empire never had "queens", and the reverse figure, though it may look feminine, is clearly Apollo with his lyre, sitting on the omphalos.

With this information, we can find a match to this coin's overall appearance: the silver staters of Delphi, made circa 336 BC from silver donated to the Oracle to help fund rebuilding after an earthquake. Obverse is veiled Demeter, reverse is Apollo with the Greek legend ΑΜΦΙΚΤΙΟΝΩΝ around. The "Amphictionic League" was the loose federation of towns surrounding Delphi, supported by Athens. This example on Numista was sourced from a Nomos AG auction. The genuine silver coins are not common, and not cheap.

Note: silver was donated. Not gold. As far as I am aware, there were no gold staters made with this design, and no electrum ones either. So we can safely assume this is not a genuine ancient coin.

However, I can find a rather large number of references to gold coins using this design, all from non-ancient-numismatic sources. Like this modern Greek 10000 drachmae coin, which mentions the design was copied form an ancient silver coin. So I would assume the OP's item was not made by someone who actually knows ancient coins.

So, is the eBay item actually made of gold? It might be, but everything else about the listing is a lie, so I see no reason to trust the "gold" description either.

syl

Aren't you in Thailand now? Why ancient?

Rexford

@Sapyx said:
Stealing the pictures, for future relevance for this thread.

Now, to answer the OP's question about authenticity, we first need to work out what exactly it purports to be - if you don't know what it is, it is logically impossible to have an informed opinion as to its genuineness.

Not really, I think a basic understanding of the sort of look that is appropriate for an ancient coin is enough to tell that this piece is fake. If that were the case then it would be impossible to tell that a fantasy, which is not necessarily imitative of anything, is not genuine, for instance.

ajaan

@syl said:
Aren't you in Thailand now? Why ancient?

Yes. So is the seller.

realeswatcher

The seller's entire "inventory" is quite obviously all ridiculous.

zrnumismatics

They're on here:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/fakesellers.html

Bailathacl

That list is eye opening, and reinforces the value of trusted sellers. Wow! The fakes page on Forum Ancient Coins is helpful too. Be careful out there….