✅ SOLVED Ancient Coin in 14k Bezel - real or repro?

[randazzo1]

I was able to do some detecting on Sunday at a local private beach. This was definitely the ?treasure? of the day. It?s a coin a solid 14k gold bezel. Maybe a charm or pendant. I?m trying to figure out if that coin is real. I believe (based on googling around) that it wants to be an Alexander era Greek coin - but it looks like this might be a fantasy version. I felt like the gold was a good sign, but I found a heavy solid gold ring with a cob in it last year and that cob turned out to be a fake (I was told a rather bad fake lol). Any thought from ppl who know ancient coins? I?m excited regardless because this is my first detector-found gold in a very, very long time. The coin is just around 17mm (estimate because I don?t have my caliper handy).

 

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[Tony in SC]

I don't think someone would put a gold bezel on a fake coin? I think it looks like the real thing?

 

[Lenrac2]

Awesome find! How old would that coin be?

 

[CreakyDigger]

Seems odd that someone would make a fake and then devalue it by making jewelry out of it. But then, a lot of things seem odd to me....

 

[Mackaydon]

I can't see putting a very worn (reverse) coin in a 14k bezel unless it is authentic IMO.
Don....

 

[Red-Coat]

The coin looks good to me. It's a Macedonian tetradrachm with the head of Herakles draped in a lion skin and Zeus seated, holding an eagle on the reverse. Possibly a serpent at the left but there are a multiplicity of iconographies and hundreds of variations from throughout the Greek Empire. I can't read the mintmark, but this is the generic type:



During the 4th Century BC Alexander the Great (336-323 BC) was the most prolific issuer of this type, but also his predecessor Philip II and his successors Alexander IV and Philip III. The Herakles bust is usually intended to be one of those rulers portrayed as Herakles and they're difficult to tell apart without some detailed comparison to the catalogues. Prices vary considerably by type but - at least without that worn section on the reverse - it would probably be a $300 coin or thereabouts.

I agree it's unlikely a repro would be derived from a worn coin and set like that.

 

[unclemac]

a similar coin in that condition would only be about $200

 

[Mackaydon]

And $20 if a repo.
Don....

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

I like the coin and bezel, Here are my observations, It looks good but I question how only one side of coin has wear and also the part on the coin that looks like a sprue, like it has been poured making it questionable in my eyes. But those are my opinions. It would be strange to fake a coin and then mount it in a gold bezel.

 

[randazzo1]

Thank you everyone for the detailed information and insights. Very, very much appreciated - especially red coat for all that info. Back-of-the-boat - it does look like a sprue. I didn’t think of that until you said it but it really does. I’m happy with it and I’ll put in the “probably real” camp.

 

[Red-Coat]

The 'sprue' is an interesting feature. Some sources say that you would never find a sprue on an authentic tetradrachm. Others say that because the blanks from which the coins were struck were cast (as a means of controlling the weight) then it is possible. I don't know who to believe but I can say that I have seen 'sprue-like' features on coins that I have no reason to doubt as genuine, but couldn't be sure that they weren't the result of the flan spreading unevenly during striking.