I have this old coin and I would like to know about it.
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2What does the other side look like? How big is it? How thick is it? Next time you take such a photo include a ruler in the background, so the scale is obvious.– kimchi loverJun 4, 2021 at 19:14
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1This looks like a tripod and a bird. Apparently coins from ancient Kroton (a Greek city state in southern Italy) have this combination quite often.– JanJun 4, 2021 at 19:34
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6It's a penny :p– Ne MoJun 4, 2021 at 19:48
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1beautiful condition if authentic. take care of it, don't let it get scratched by other coins, handle it with gloves. may be quite valuable.– releseabeJun 4, 2021 at 20:48
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1@SwiftPushkar - no this is not a roman coin, the kroton coin is showing a tripod, where as the byzantine coin is showing the letter M which is stating the coins value. Also one is silver the other bronze (or base) metals.– ed.hankJun 5, 2021 at 14:01
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1 Answer
This is a Kroton drachma (by the size, they also made a nomos but it was 3x bigger)
This is also a fake, very easy to tell by the strange edging and the fact the obverse and the reverse are the exact same, just an inverse of the other. i would guess these were cast using a single side to create both sides of the coin.
see: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/kroton_bruttium-1.html for how they should look.
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Several of the examples in the page you linked to have the same obverse and reverse.– SpencerJun 6, 2021 at 16:04
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@Spencer - take a closer look, this coin is literally the exact same, the crane and text on the reverse are an exact mirror image of the obverse, this is not correct, and is something you see when a forger used only 1 side to create both sides. valid older coins did have an inverse reverse but it was just the tripod that was inversed not the text or other symbols like the crane. also the edge of this coin is just plain wrong, ive never seen a greek coin with that edging. some fakes you really need to examine to be sure, this one is not one of those.– ed.hankJun 8, 2021 at 12:44
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The 2nd coin in the list on the webpage is just like that. One side is raised and the other is sunken. The coin was made by punching through a thin blank to make both sides at once. The only thing that makes the OP's coin suspect is its unresaonable circularity.– SpencerJun 8, 2021 at 14:49
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@Spencer - if you mean this 2nd coin - en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces187578.html, then no they are not exact mirror images. There is no inverse QPO like on the OPs fake,there is also no reverse crane. You can measure the distance between features of the tripod and see its not identical. Original coins were made with 2 different dies one for each side, the coin in the OPs post has both sides made from a single die. I am not sure why you are arguing about a coin that is not even close to being genuine. The fact its a circle is just one of many things that screams fake on this coin– ed.hankJun 8, 2021 at 19:05