Three questionable ancients I'd like assistance with

Pokermandude

I recently purchased quite a good sized collection of ancient coins (eye candy coming soon!). These three stuck out at me as being a little off.

The first appears to be silver plated copper. The reverse is weak, seems unlike to be the result of struck coin.

The second also has a weak reverse, seemingly inconsistent with being struck.

The third (bronze) just looks strange all around.

Any assistance would be great!

bronzemat

They're ancient and labeled correctly.



They are real.



Third one is a bit rough, not worth no $75 either. Maybe $20.



Second one is fairly common, worth about $70.

lordmarcovan

Originally posted by: Pokermandude

I recently purchased quite a good sized collection of ancient coins (eye candy coming soon!). These three stuck out at me as being a little off.

Your instincts are sound- in the case of these three, I can see why they'd trigger some suspicion. However, like bronzemat said, these particular coins appear to be OK.

The first appears to be silver plated copper. The reverse is weak, seems unlike to be the result of struck coin.

You're actually right that it appears to be silver plated, because it is. The Roman antoninianus was so debased by this chaotic period in their history that it had become essentilally a bronze coin with a thin silver wash instead of a good silver coin. So yes, it's silver plated, but it was the Imperial mint that did that shifty little deed, rather than a modern faker! Often the silvering does not survive and the coins look like normal, unplated bronzes. Having a coin with near or full silvering, as in the case of yours, is a plus!

The second also has a weak reverse, seemingly inconsistent with being struck.

No, it was struck, all right, but with really tired dies that had done a lot of work!

The third (bronze) just looks strange all around.

You're right. That one just has what I call "the fakey look". A lot of fakes have a similar look, which is hard to describe. However, despite the somewhat "fakey" appearance this one's OK. It's a common coin, but not a bad looking example.



(That happens with ancients, sometimes- you can have real coins which look fake, and vice versa. It's the "vice-versa" you have to watch out for!)



Really, the only thing I can see as being "off" about these is the marked prices, which are rather excessive. (The first one, the silvered Probus, is maybe not too far from being a $60-ish coin. It's slightly high, but the prices on the other two are crazy-high.)



But coins themselves look pretty decent for their respective types, in my opinion.

Pokermandude

Thanks for the help, guys. The owner was very understanding about the written prices being way too high. I am into them at a much more realistic number.

The Maximinus piece at $250 CDN (approx $195 USD these days) seems not too out of line, compared to this similar, but lower grade, one I found on Vcoins at $107 USD:

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