Where is this coin from?

My mother aquired this coin as a little girl. It definately doesn't look like your average one. Is it even a coin? Does anyone happen to know where it is from? The pictures for both sides are below. It looks like there may be some writing on the upper right of one of the sides, but I have no idea what it means or says. Hopefully someone here knows a lot more about artifacts than I do. It looks like it is some sort of stone or clay (perhaps) which is coated in some sort of metal. Can anyone provide any insight?

I think you should run by your local museum and ask. They could probably spot it in 2 secs.
Here you'll just have people discussing wether it's aztek, roman or persian gold With all due respect to people here ofcourse.

(sometimes it just seems like it's the chase that is fun, rather than the result... too bad really)

Hate to say it, but it looks fake. Iron alloys that rust red didn't exist up until around the 1800's. Before that, the pig iron blackened and disintegrated.

It's a pretty good one, though.

It looks like the coins in 300, that crappy new movie.

I am not sure if that is rust or red clay. If I remember correctly it was found in the ground somewhere with a metal detector. I would think that if it were rust then every visible portion past the outer metal would be rusted.

If it is clay, I would think that it is from the Sicily area. Any guess as to the Continent it was located?

To determine the composition of the clay, you could wet the coin and note the colorization. This gives a preliminary visible description of what types of materials might have been used. Much visibly darker indicates, certain metal ores were used, lighter indicates sand or other minerals. This could be important in tracking the specific region.

Curious the clay did not meld with the ground. Not entirely impossible, though. Might not have been there long.

i think its time you plan a trip to antiques roadshow! You could be sitting on a goldmine.. or not

Originally posted by bothered
To determine the composition of the clay, you could wet the coin and note the colorization. This gives a preliminary visible description of what types of materials might have been used. Much visibly darker indicates, certain metal ores were used, lighter indicates sand or other minerals. This could be important in tracking the specific region.

Curious the clay did not meld with the ground. Not entirely impossible, though. Might not have been there long.

What do I do again? Put a little bit of water on the exposed darker areas and see if it gets darker or lighter with water? I will try to find out where the coin was found originally today. Any idea if that is some sort of writing on the coin? Or just symbols?

as much as i'd like to say that your coin resembles the coins here in my post, i really can't give you 100% assurance that your coin and these coins are the same. while they do share some superficial similarities such as the reclining pose (which incidentally hinted at your coin as being one of the "alexander the great" variety) on one side, its the full on view of the face on the other side of your coin that's giving me doubts. try visiting this
link to view more "alexander the great" coins so that you may see for yourself.

i do heartily agree with the suggestion that you should consult someone from the museum or a person who specializes in ancient coins.

also try to do a search on google images, just type "alexander the great coins"

good luck

[edit on 20-3-2007 by toreishi]

Looks to me like it has been electroplated.

Kroton in Bruttium. Hera Lakinia looking stunning in her Stephanus. This is probably 7/8 facing. The turn is very important. It allows the eyes to peer beyond the viewer to something beyond. It also allows the artist to differentiate the hair on the sides of the face, adding interest to the composition.

500-300BCE

Another, with interesting metal flow giving the appearance of motion. Hera also has a little Elvis thing going with her lips.

500-300BCE

which incidentally hinted at your coin as being one of the "alexander the great" variety

Alexander the great is most often shown in profile
this is clearly Hera facing out of the coin and her son Hercules relaxing on the reverse side


[edit on 20-3-2007 by Marduk]

are coins this old worth money, or are they more museum pieces? I wonder what the market is like for an ancient coin and what people would be willing to pay for one.

Check Ebay Prices on these vary, but 20 bucks can get you a 100 BCE Roman Coin, they seem very plentiful

that particular coin a Kroton from Bruttium is worth up to around £1000 in mint condition
in the condition yours is in you'll be lucky to get £100 for it

Wow. That is some nice research there, people. Thanks to this information I was able to pull this up:

Limes Falsa

These coins were casted for use as local coinage in the Limes area (River Danube) when official money was not available or limited in supply. Most probably official coins were pressed into clay to form a mold. Liquified hot bronze was poured into these molds in order to cast new (unofficial) coins.

These sort of coins are usually very bad preserved and due the bad cast, the obverse and reverse are not very clear most of the time.

www.ancientcoins.biz...

Here are a couple of examples of what these coins might have looked like with their composition:





www.ancientcoins.biz...

I think that could be a step in the right direction...

Being a coin collector for 15+ years I would say your coin in a mid 1960s reproduction of an old Roman coin.

Originally posted by Lightman9202
Being a coin collector for 15+ years I would say your coin in a mid 1960s reproduction of an old Roman coin.

I suppose that is always a possibility although I believe it was aquired before then. If it were a reproduction why wouldn't they have made it look a little more...I guess, like the pictures that were posted above? They looked pretty crisp (comparatively).

A little info on Roman Coins. This one is not a fake, but appears to have had the patina removed and possibly polished.

Roman coins and rings are very plentiful. The composition of many of them are as follows: Most coins are bronze, next silver, them rare ones are gold, same with the rings.

I have collected many of both over the past 15 years. I would have to look in my roman coin collectors book to place this one, but it appears Roman.

The reason for the plentiful coins and rings are because just before battle Roman soldiers would bury their coins and rings in their base camp and place some sort of marker that they would know, so when returning from battle they would return to the base camp and reclaim their goods. Unfortunately many of the soldiers never returned or some could not find their markers, hence many horde's of coins and rings turn up throughout Europe all the time.

[edit on 20-3-2007 by Realtruth]

I have collected many of both over the past 15 years. I would have to look in my roman coin collectors book to place this one, but it appears Roman.

I have already posted two pictures of nearly identical coins in mint condition
it isn't Roman as it predates Rome
and really
they didn't worship Hera you know

It's all Greek to me.


I thought it might be Greek in fact I thought it looked like Helos the sun god, but then I second guessed myself.

Originally posted by Marduk

I have collected many of both over the past 15 years. I would have to look in my roman coin collectors book to place this one, but it appears Roman.

I have already posted two pictures of nearly identical coins in mint condition
it isn't Roman as it predates Rome
and really
they didn't worship Hera you know