traveler

Fascinating. Could the coin below also be an example of a "raised or stepped secondary flan"? Referring to the 9h position.

Many years ago I won a denarius from a member auction on a well known site. I had never bought from this particular member before. When I collected the Registered Mail envelope from the post office, I noticed the postage stamps indicated it came from Bulgaria. I was a really green collector, but I knew to avoid coins from Bulgaria. My heart sank. When I tore open the envelope I saw there wasn't any self-adhesive coin mailer inside, just a coin wrapped thickly in some newspaper. I thought that was another bad sign. After removing the paper I looked at the coin and thought the surfaces looked very strange. The colour of the metal wasn't that of clean silver, nor toned silver. It looked like tin or something, although the details were correct but soft. I had no weighing scale with me, but I thought the coin seemed on the light side. By that time I was certain I had bought a Bulgarian cast. So I flipped the coin over and looked at the edge for a casting seam. Sure enough, there was something which looked like a seam, but after looking closely it seemed the coin was wrapped in something else. It turned out the seller had wrapped the coin in aluminium foil, which had taken on the details of the denarius from being compressed during postage. That was a lesson in my own preconceptions. The coin in question, a denarius of Domitian from his short-lived monetary reform (82-85).

NGC writes a series of articles on ancients, covering a whole variety of themes. Always illustrated with coins too. It may help you decide what to collect. https://www.ngccoin.com/news/series/ancients/

Maybe because the solidus with TROB mintmark is meant to convey unity and equality with Theodosius I in the East. Theodosius I was striking solidi with the CONOB mintmark.

I agree, thanks. Those are good points. Just by looking at the OP coin... I am still unsure about whether it's a fake or not. Having said that, the "find video", and the story being told by the OP are doubtful to me.

About round flans. What I was trying to say, is that circular flans are actually pretty common for late Roman coins. They're not like denarii, which can have markedly oval flans. I speak from my own experience with late Romans solidi in my collection. If you look at the image below again, all of them have almost the entire beaded border on flan. That is an indicator of how circular the flans are. Of course miliarensia are not the same as solidi. Unfortunately I only have one miliarense.. they are expensive. But the one I have is pretty circular too. On acsearch.info I see many miliarensia with round flans as well, although there are exceptions of course. But personally, I would not take the relative roundness of the OP coin as a red flag.

Anyway, Joe over at Forvm has replied. From his reply I think he is non-committal, or at the very least he doesn't think it's a glaring fake. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=133022.0

Hello Ryro, Thanks for the welcome. I do realise a new person posting in defence of another new person is bound to raise eyebrows. Which is why I wasn't intending to reply in the first place. About the type not existing... I take it you mean that the OP's coin is fake. I'm willing to be corrected there. However, having said that, RIC 131 as a type does exist. Here's another example sold by Harlan J. Berk: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=11431254 I've attached an image from my tray of late Romans, to show that I'm a collector as well.

Thanks for the attribution correction Heliodromus. I wasn't intending to comment on this coin, but I really don't see the signs which convinced other posters that this coin is fake. Roundness of the flan: Coins of this period are very round to begin with. Weight: 3.94g is acceptable for a light miliarense. Style: The engraving of the legend, and the general style of the portrait/reverse all seem more or less acceptable for the period. To me, if this coin is a fake it will likely be a cast or transfer die fake. Casting bubbles: It's true there are what appear to be casting bubbles, especially in the reverse field. But there are also really typical looking corrosion marks on the obverse bust, and what looks like clumsy (sorry) cleaning scratch marks on the top of the obverse bust. Since this is a rare type, it would make sense if someone were to go to the trouble of casting a genuine coin, then adding cleaning scratches and such. Corrosion on the obverse could be faked too I guess. But on balance I am not comfortable with condemning it so quickly.

It looks like at least an obverse die match to this coin: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=919012 RIC 58. The style is correct, so if it's a fake it must be a cast. It doesn't appear cast to me though. I may be wrong.