Caracalla's poor silver denarius: a fouree, with Hercules reverse

[zanzi]

Hello again, I have another poor silver denarius to share today. This time the coin is not too worn, but instead has terrible surface issues. It was a budget purchase of a lot "two unknown Roman coins, silver?" by a dealer who seems to only deal with modern American coins. The other coin was an Alexander the Great drachm which was the reason I bought the group for $16. I thought that was a good deal for the drachm itself, never mind whatever this was. But, as things go, I kept coming around to the question of what this coin was. In hand, it had more details than the eBay listing, but I couldn't hardly make any script out and did not recognize the reverse. Yesterday, fortunately, @CPK posted in the 'Post it and pick it' thread their Caracalla denarius which made me stop and think - hey that looks pretty close to my coin.

After some deep digging through Numista and auction listings, I think I have got this narrowed down pretty good. I'm surprised that I was able to land on an exact type, given how poor the coin is. The only clear script on the obverse is "INVS PIVS AVG G". The reverse has what I believe is "II COS IIII P P". With that, I landed on Caracalla RIC 239.

 

Roman Empire
Emperor Caracalla
214 AD, or soon after
AR denarius, fouree
O: Bust of Caracalla right, ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM
R: Nude Hercules standing forward, lionskin draped over arm, holding a branch and club, P M TR P XVII COS IIII P P
Weight: 2.0 grams
Size: 16.6mm - 17.5mm - 1.5mm
RIC IV.1 #239
 

After awhile of staring at this ugly thing I got around to thinking, "what the hell is wrong with it anyways?". It looks like in spots there is a layer of surface missing, revealing a darker color below. There is also green patina spots in some areas, which I know don't fit into silver well. I think the only reasonable explanation is a silver plated fouree contemporary counterfeit. If I'm correct with that, this is my first fouree coin. It is also my first Caracalla coin which is an emperor I know little about. A quick browse of Wikipedia tells that he is regarded as one of the more cruel emperors, but also granted citizenship to all freemen. I have more to read on him.

I'd love to see other coins of Caracalla, or other 'tough ID' coins you may have. As a budget collector, this was quite a challenge but I think it's a solid ID. I would appreciate any confirmation about the fouree status of this coin, as well. For $8, this was a pretty neat coin to grab. Thank you all

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

The style also looks way off, which also suggests fourree.

For many years, I was the king of budget coins, having a tight budget.  You would have loved the 1990's, which were the golden age of inexpensive coins.  I picked up bulk lots of $1.50 1st/2nd (mostly 2nd) century asses and similar sized provincials.  The Catch 22 was that I was in college and didn't have much spare money.  For the price, they certainly weren't bad, mostly solid VG to F. 

I'm still in the 'budget' category, but have moved up to the $200-300 coin.

 

Here's a budget Caracalla tetradrachm, purchased to have an uncleaned example of a tetradrachm.

 

[Romismatist]

Portrait style on the fouree looks more like Hadrian or Trajan, but the lettering doesn't add up. It could be Antoninus Pius, but the portrait doesn't match up to that either. I guess your attribution makes the most sense based on what you can discern from the legend.

[zanzi]

21 hours ago, Romismatist said:

Portrait style on the fouree looks more like Hadrian or Trajan, but the lettering doesn't add up. It could be Antoninus Pius, but the portrait doesn't match up to that either. I guess your attribution makes the most sense based on what you can discern from the legend.

Thanks for the portrait thoughts, I will do more looking to see if I missed something from them.