Licinius fake?

[Trevor B]

Hi All,
This coin came to me in a Job lot described as 'metal detecting finds'
Licinius Follis Obv-IMP LICINIVS P F AVG Rev-PROVIDE-NTI-AE AVGG
Looks and feels good 'in hand' however I have been adivsed that it is a possible fake
2.16 grams, 23mm at widest point
I realise that if genuine it is quite a scarce piece
Many Thanks

[Heliodromus]

I have one of these too, and started a thread about them not too long ago.

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=123153.0

The conclusion I've come to is that they are all fake.

Yours is the 8th example I've seen. Three of them are in museums, with one apparently having a provenance over 200 yrs old.

My best guess is that these are cast fakes. "Modern", but not recent. The obverse seems to have been copied from a genuine coin. The reverse may have been copied from a genuine coin too, most likely for Constantine (this "die pair" is the only one that seems to exist for Licinius - there don't appear to be any genuine coins of this type made for him).

If I were you I'd throw it in a drawer as a curio and forget about it!

Ben

[SC]

It would be interesting to see if that lovely green patina comes off with acetone - say on a small part of one edge.

SC

[wolfgang336]

Trevor also posted images of the rim in the Facebook group from which he sought advice originally. I hope he doesn't mind, but I've uploaded them here too for consideration. I'll post them in the other thread as well, for posterity.