Some HELP with an old coin

a reply to: tadaman

Yeah, you're right...that's why I deleted my post. Great job mate!

a reply to: tadaman
Those pendant holes are rather typical on circulated coins. It won't really hurt the value of this coin much though mainly because it is copper. Never clean the coin, EVER . You can ask any jeweler, pawn shop, or coin dealer and they will tell you the same. Leave it as it is. Of course this particular coin, if you plan on keeping it as the resale value is about similar to a circulated liberty dime, could polish up good with brass-o or something. If you try to sell it after polishing it though, youd barely get a dollar.

I had a friend find a similar coin when they tore down a barracks in Germany for modernization in the early 2000's.

It's interesting when they "pop up" and their historical possibilities make them far more valuable to the finders than the collectors prices would suggest.

*I could never get so lucky. The closest I came was a few Reichsphennigs I found under the German POW barracks (I was on a police call in Battle Creek Michigan as a Private).

Something ought to be said about Maximus himself, now that we have found him.
According to the books, he was a Spanish-born general commanding the province of Britain, in a time when Imperial authority was insecure.
To select from the narrative of Gibbon, "the name of Maximus was proclaimed by the tumultuary, but unanimous voice, both of the soldiers and of the provincials... from the moment Maximus had violated his allegiance to his lawful sovereign, he could not hope to reign or even to live, if he confined to limit his moderate ambition within the narrow limits of Britain... The armies of Gaul, instead of opposing the march of Maximus, received him with joyful and loyal acclamations..."
By agreement with Theodosius, ruling at Constantinople, Maximus was allowed to rule the provinces beyond the Alps. But once Maximus also invaded Italy, Theodosius struck back. Maximus was trapped and captured at Aquileia.
Then he was abandoned "to the pious zeal of the soldiers, who drew him out of the imperial presence and instantly separated his head from his body" (ch27).
So what you have got there is an historic souvenir of a very short-lived imperial rebellion.
Whatever the monetary value of the piece, there can't have been many of them.

a reply to: DISRAELI

tl;dr

Keep the coin, put it in some tiny frame and in a far off corner in your home, and remember who is on the coin and when someone comes over and randomly see it you can make it a conversation piece.

originally posted by: strongfp
tl;dr

The loss is yours, not mine.

a reply to: tadaman

Closest I could find was Maximinus Thrax coins 3rd century. Here is a Link of roman coins pics and descriptions perhaps you will recognize more detail looking at the actual coin since pics are flat.

Edit add: never mind...Looks like you found it. Fun looking though...thank you.

originally posted by: DISRAELI

originally posted by: strongfp
tl;dr

The loss is yours, not mine.

I know who the various significant figures named Maximus in Roman history are.
I was memeing

a reply to: DISRAELI

Thats a very cool back story. Thanks !!

a reply to: tadaman

Does look Roman to me so I am going to go with the people that say it is, also I have a very similar coin that is definitely roman in a presentation frame which was given to me as a gift some time ago.

I am pretty sure there are some coin enthusiasts on the site whom may have better information but I have to correct one statement, it is NOT worthless, it won't be worth an awful lot and in fact to most people it may have no value beyond being a novelty but to collectors dependent upon it's rarity, were it was found (if you can give it any provenance at all that is with some history so that is definitely worth trying to find out since it does add to the value), the emperor and date and most of all whom is buying on the day and how much they are willing to pay for it.

It is one of those thing's where you will have a different estimate from almost every expert and auctioneer.

It does appear to be in poor condition and a likely provincially produced coin rather than one minted in Rome and this will detract from it's value but once again if you can give it some history and were, when and whom the image represent's, for many buyers if is not the coin but the history related to it which they are purchasing, they feel then like they have a bit of the past in there possession.

That hole in the top were it has been used as a pendant by someone will also very much detract from it's value as it is a defacement of the older coin, it may be a souvenir someone picked up on holiday before the export of historical artifacts was finally clamped down on so most likely a 1980's purchase at the latest, once again I am sketchy on that but there are plenty whom do know on this site.


I really should read the whole comment's before posting Disraeli has posted the most excellent reply.

Cleaning old coins is more often a mistake than a good idea. Be very careful.

This site should help.

link

Coins with nearly destroyed surfaces can sometimes be identified by using Photoshop's filtering tools.
Never clean them, just dust them off with a fine hair brush.
Take the highest resolution picture you can with good lighting. Use side lighting with polarization to reduce glare issues.
Then analyze it by using the gaussian and edge detection filters in photoshop. You will be surprised what further information you can glean. This is the preferred method used today by historical numismatic experts and even archeologists.

Looks certainly Roman to me, but there are some extremely rare Roman coins out there, you never know.