guys my family has this old coin. I live in Tunisia (land of Carthage, but we were also occupied by the romans)
I wanted to know more about the coin, but found nothing on the internet. and obviously I can't ask historians in here because it's illegal to own such thing.
so any help guys?
more pics below
the other face
width
Why is it illegal?
If it is real, and I have no idea if it is, then you should seal it up in a plastic bag, and keep it away from light and anybody's hands.
It'a Ptolemaic tetradrachm I reckon
Reported. Enjoy your 10 year prison sentence and your 100 lashes.
OP here. Please don't. I don't want my daughters to be sold off as slaves.
All artifacts are supposed to be government's proprietary.
you don't have the same law in the US ? oh wait..
It is real. what's the use of in in a plastic bag
They don't look similar , but it's the same style so it might be greek after all.
i'm also suing you for impersonation OP.
>All artifacts are supposed to be government's proprietary.
>you don't have the same law in the US ? oh wait..
I was asking an honest question out of interest and I have never so much as visited the USA.
It's a modern fake. How could you possibly think otherwise? Just look at it. If I were being generous I'd say it was made of brass, but it is more likely made of 'pot metal'. The legend is meaningless - but is in 'Latin' characters. The front appears to begin reading TRAI which would be Trajan - but a quick look at any of his coinage online will show you how unlikely this is. The reverse is meaningless nonsense - DHNAOKOCIMVAT ORUO CVTOT. This would make no sense in either Latin or Greek characters.
It is far larger and thicker than any ancient coin you would be likely to find in that part of the Mediterranean.
The 'style' is poor and blurred - a definite sign it is cast. It has been patinated chemically, and if you look at the edge, the scratches are from the casting lines being filed off.
It is tourist tat - it cannot possibly be a forgery designed to convince.
You can take my word for it, or you could post it to a numismatic website. It will take less than 30 seconds for it to be laughed off.
t. PhD in Roman and Greek numismatics.
Tl;dr - the size, style, thickness, legend, chemical patination, filing marks all show unequivocally that this is a modern piece of tourist tat. Definitely won't be going to prison for owning it.
Cheap cast fake.
That "Latin" is gibberish and the coin is not well defined at all- the images are too poor to be genuine and the thickness of that thing is bonkers.
Ultra fake brah
That looks absolutely fake as fuck.
>Replies with add little
>Some guy makes a long post explaining why its not a true coin
>Then a fuckton of guys appear to claim "fake"
Most artefacts in the US are bought from private citizens by private collectors for their own collection or for museums. The government only rarely steps in when the artefact is found on government land (and even then, they only ever try to seize it if it's illegal, like a hunk of recent ivory, or if it's a gigantic cache of gold). However, citizens have contested these claims, and even won.
Finder's keepers laws of America
I don't read threads before posting :^)
OP probably bought this in a gift shop
Hey user, while you're here what's the deal with the Clanis Coins that seem to show black people.
I've heard the theory that they might've been minted in honor of Nubian mahmouts, and obviously everyone knows about Afrocentrists trying to claim that Hannibal was black because of them. I thought they were fake at first because they clashed with other Carthaginian coins I looked at and 99% of sources I found for them were Afrocentric nonsense, but I'm not too sure.
Hannibal was an empowered black women.