Spent 3 hours trying to date a Roman coin that turned out to be a replica

I dug up what looked like a denarius from a site near Bath last month. Spent three whole evenings cross-referencing bust styles and legends online. Finally had a local museum curator look at it, and he spotted the casting seam in about 30 seconds. Anyone else waste time on a fake before realizing it?

2 comments

2 Comments

charlie_roberts8719d ago

Oh man, that's rough! I've been there with a "Celtic" coin I found near a market stall in York. The giveaway was the weight was off by a few grams, and the patina felt way too uniform. Next time, try the magnet trick on the edge - denarii should be pure-ish silver, and a lot of those cheap replicas have an iron core or something mixed in. And yeah, always check for that little seam line before you dive into the deep research, it'll save you a ton of time.

lisar1419d ago

Tbh, is this really that big of a deal? Magnets and seam lines sound like a lot of work for a trinket you probably paid a fiver for at a market. @charlie_roberts87, I get being thorough, but half the fun is just finding something cool and not caring if it's a fake. If the weight feels right and it looks okay on a shelf, that's good enough for me.