Cast Trajan Alexandrian Drachm RPC 4626

[Edessa]

A dozen years ago I picked up a couple of multiple lots of Alexandrian coins from a Stacks auction. The coins were unillustrated and did not attract much attention, so I picked them up cheap. These coins were generally middling grade and common issues, but one coin stood out as being a quite rare type. However, the coin had a "mushy" feel and so I pitched it in a box and forgot about it. 

I have finally gotten around to photographing some of these lots and I believe that this is a cast of a coin illustrated in RPC as 4626.1. In addition to the "mushy" design, you may observe the filled-in edge splits and traces of a casting seam with hammering on the edge.

Not sure this cast was meant to deceive; it very well may have been a study copy. The host coin is in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris (SNG 1145). The ANS has several examples donated by Newell, but none are illustrated.

My cast is 33mm, 16.89g. The host coin is 33mm, 17.60g. Two of the unillustrated examples in the ANS are lower weight (14.74g, 16.08g) and two are much higher weight (20.26g and 25.46g). The one example I found on CoinArchives and ACSearch is also of a higher weight and not die matched.

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting case. The host coin was not in the best condition.

RPC 4626

 

My cast example

 

 

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

I once had a Nero Tetradrachm which was cast. It actually was cast in bronze rather than billon so an obvious fake, probably sold as a tourist piece in Egypt.