Ancient Coin Question

ColonialCoinUnion

I edited the title since the last version elicited only 1 response and a tumbleweed then blew through the chatroom.

So, here we go again:

Are these real? What are they? What are they worth?

theboz11

I don't know but they are sure are in nice shape for the age.

coachleonard

They look awfully authentic to me. Looks like a 4th century A.D roman gold coin and a 3rd-4th century BC Greek gold coin. Not sure what the values are -- i'd think a lot! (some help that is)

Sapyx

Your top one looks like a gold solidus of Emperor Gratian, 367-383 AD, mintmark TROBT (Treveri mint, Germany). The "Millennium edition" Sear catalogue doesn't cover this period yet, but my old copy of the 3rd Ed. (1981) lists this very coin as number 4026, price £250.

Lower one looks Greek, but there's not much legend left to give a city/kingdom of origin. My best guess is the gold coins (staters and their doubles and fractions) of Alexander the Great circa 330 BC. The design is right, and they're probably the most plentiful Greek gold coins around. Looks like "...EXAN..." to the right of the Victory-figure, with a D mintmark to the left, which easily fits the Alexander types. Listed in Sear (Greek) as numbers 6700 to 6709, with prices ranging from £3000 for the distaters to £650 for the commoner staters.

If you're worried about authenticity, the easiest checks you can do for yourself are weight and specific gravity. The solidus should weigh The weight of a solidus should be 4.5 grams. The stater should be 8.6 grams, but I'd expect some variance for your one, given the amount of clipping/wear this one's apparently seen.

coinguy89

I would have said the top looks perfect and the bottom one looks kind of funny, especially on the obverse. It looks Greek, and I don't know much about Greek gold, so don't take my advice. Otherwise, they both look really nice and in amazing shape! ICG slabs ancients, maybe some others do to. Do you have the books on these coins? They're very helpful. I have them for Roman coins and I haven't been scammed yet.