What is this coin?

elassoto

What is this coin? Is it real??


Roman Coin Obverse
Roman Coin Reverse

coachleonard

I think it COULD be real.. nothing leaps out in a big way to say it's fake. BTW this is an ancient Greek silver coin (about 300 B.C) if genuine. But because the features are SO bold, you have to really question these coins, because these are just the type of popular ancient coins that get copied. I'm sure others will weigh in.

elassoto

Yes, but what kind is it?

TitusFlavius

I don't have my books with me to ID at the moment, but I would be concerned about the little metal bumps on the reverse. They're most visible near the torch. This could be evidence of a cast fake. Check the edge for a seam or evidence of its removal. As coachleonard said, spectacular silver pieces like this are a favorite among fakers.

harasha

"INIO" does not make sense to me, but check out this eBay listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-SEASHELL-HANDLE-KEY-SILVER-PIN-BROOCH-INIO-OINI_W0QQitemZ170016636441QQcmdZViewItem

Sapyx

"INIO" does indeed make sense to the Wildwinds partial inscription search. Typing "INIO" there comes up with a whole bunch of coins looking much like that.

It's not Roman, it's Greek, from the city of Ainos, on the north Aegean coast at what is now the Greek-Turkish border town of Enez. The obverse is Hermes, wearing his trademark hat called a petasos. Here's one of the Wildwinds ones:


The Sear catalogue of Greek dates it in the period 405-357 BC. How large is it? According to Sear, coins of this design were issued from the large tetradrachms (S#1568), right down to the tiny diobols(S#1570).

They're all quite pricey, too; tets are £4000, diobols are £225, so if it "fell off the back of a truck", I'd be suspicious. I know I have a very similar-looking goat on a "diobol", with a Janus-head obverse, which turned out to be fake.

Aethelred

Elassoto, I am sad to say that I am almost sure that coin is not real. The raised bumps on the reverse suggest that it is a cast copy.