This morning, an acquantaince came to show me a presumably ancient coin she found during digging works at a building plot.
On the obverse, it shows a beautiful image of Alexander the Great, on the reverse, there are two fishes and a lot of little dots and stars (does anyone know if this is a known type ?). The weight is 67 g., the diameter 54 mm, the die axis 12 o' clock. There is no legenda (text) on it.
I do have strong doubts about its authenticity though :
1) The piece looks almost too well preserved to be true.
2) The metal appears to be copper, strange for a coin of this size, and strange also that the original colour of the copper still faintly shows through at certain of the mentioned dots (one would expect the coin to be entirely oxydated after over two millenia).
3) Something resembling a joint seems to show through on the sides. As ancient coins were minted, not cast or pressed, this appears quite suspect.
4) Few coins are found here in Belgium and a coin of Alexander would seem even stranger, unless it is a Celtic copy, but then again, one would expect the Alexander image to be less true to the original.
You see I'm not optimistic about the authenticity of the piece, although I don't expect the acquantaince to be fooling me about the circumstances in which she acquired it. However, I will show the coin to the professor of numismatics at our university after the Easter holidays, and will inform you wether it is real or forged, and whether it will make rich or not
To be continued
Valete,
Q. Pomponius Atticus
