Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help IDing please!!

[fishalaska24]

Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Hey everyone,
I was treasure hunting on a military base today and dug up this coin. It's very hard to see the details on it but you can make out a picture of a face on the front. My wife thinks I'm crazy because she doesn't see it, but I think I can see a date on the bottom right of the front side of the coin. I wanna say it reads 18 something. I'm not sure. I researched the history of the area because I assume it had to of been there before the base was here and the history of the area is romans. Perhaps this is an old roman coin? I don't really know. I have already tried rolling it twice, which helped a lot but I still can't make very much out on it. If anyone has any ideas of how to clean it better, or any information on what it might be, please let me know! I think this might be my oldest find and I'm hoping it looks familiar to someone out there!
Thanks,
Jake

The first picture is after the 1st cleaning, second picture is the second cleaning, third picture is where i think I can see a possible date, and fourth picture is of the back.

 

[Detectingfreak]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Sorry can't really help. The picture of the coins need to be bigger.

 

[JP]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Honestly it looks like an old Roman coin.

Try to take some close up pictures for the ones on the forum that more expert in this field.

Cool find either way, but you aren't crazy, it is a coin.

HH

 

[fishalaska24]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Hopefully this comes out a little bigger, I'm still new at posting pictures on this website

 

[Dirt Dobber]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Yep. Ditto above. Needs to be closer with a touch of sharpest. Nice find anyway. D.D.

 

[fishalaska24]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

another

 

[Lee43]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

I do believe that it is a Roman coin...If you would crop the coin out of the photo, it will give a better view of the coin.............Lee

 

[artorius]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

The coin is a 4th Century AD Roman bronze coin - almost certainly issued circa 340-390 AD. Imperial portraits were highly stylelizd during this period, unlike the maginificent realistic portraits of the early Empire. Worn and less proicient as the portrait on your coin appears, it looks similar to coins of several 4th century Emperors, including Constantius II (337-361), Valentinian I (364-375) and Valens (364-378).

Could you provide a better photo of the reverse of your coin? Besides possibly allowing a specific identification as to Emperor, the mintmark on the coin may be visible. The Romans during the 4th century issued coins from many mints scattered throughout the Empire. During this time, one of these mints was Trier in Germany - a likely mint considering where you recovered the coin.

Great find, BTW!

artorius

 

[nebstater]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Hope you don't mind, but I took one of your photos and blew up the picture of the coin. Hope that it makes it easier for someone to ID it for you.

 

[fishalaska24]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

No, I don't mind at all, thank you for your help!

 

[surfin]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Neat.......it does look roman

Surfin

 

[tymcmurray]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Can you scan it in and crop it so you have a clearer close up?
I, too, think it may be roman.

 

[fishalaska24]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

I've been trying to get a bigger picture of it while keeping it clear, but I am having all sorts of issues doing so. haha I'll keep trying. Thank you all for the help despite the poor image quality.

 

[fishalaska24]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

I think I figured it out! Here is the back

 

[fishalaska24]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Yup, haha I did. Here is the front. Sorry for the delay everyone.

 

[toolman61]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Very nice find! I hope it turns out to be something very old and valuble for you!! HH Tom

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

That is surely a Roman coin, congrats!! It took me exactly one year to find Roman around there, I was about 20 minutes from Ktown in Baumholder. Found 7 Roman bronze coins my very last hunt. HH, Mike

 

[Indianhead Jones]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

A great old coin!! Nice going, Fish!

Larry

 

[artorius]

Re: Old coin found in Germany on military base but need help ID'ing please!!

Your photos are as good as I suspect they will get, but I still am unable to parse out the legend. Perhaps your looking at the coin in hand, and under different lighting and angles, will allow you to see more.

I have a couple of websites that might assist you. The first is the Wildwinds site, which is a schollarly compilation of information on Greek, Roman and Byzantine coins. One can pull up issues of a particular ruler, or use a search engine for tracking down partial inscriptions. The Wildwinds site can be accessed at www.wildwinds.com.

Another good site is Doug Smith's website at http://dougsmith.ancients.info. If you go to the "NEW Coin Pages" block on the home page, and click on the article "The Dirty Dozen", you will find an interesting (and very readable) article on the most common Roman bronze coins of the mid-late 4th century AD.

A very common obverse inscription of this time is:

DN [Emperor's name] PF AVG. For Constantius II (337-361), this would read:

DNCONSTANTIVSPFAVG. Note the lack of spacing, and the Latin use of "V" for "U".

Written in full Latin with spacing, and without abbreviations, the legend is:

Dominus Noster Constantius Pius Felix Augustus.

Translated into English: Our Lord Constantius, Dutiful Servant, Augustus.

"Augustus" was a title assumed by Octavian Caesar shortly after he became the first Roman Emperor in 27 BC, and was used by all succeeding Emperors. Junior Emperors, or "heirs apparent", used the lower ranking title of "Caesar" (often abbreviated as "Caes", or simply "C").

Most 4th century Roman bronze coins are not very valuable, even in decent condition, but for me, finding a tangible memento of Rome's Empire would be priceless.

Artorius

 

[Horst]

very cool find congrats