Sabina Denarius

[nigel nicholson]

Hi,

Can any one give me the RIC no for this coin I found today please.

[Rupert]

If I'm correctly informed, about 16 grains are 1 gram, so it would be about 2,5 grams, which would be too light for a denarius of that time; it should have 3 grams or a little more. A rather corroded coin could occasionally have 2,5 grams but your coin doesn't look like that. This weight would lead me to assume that it's indeed a silver plated coin. Such coins are not uncommon in that era, see the thread that I started a few days ago

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=17619

, the coin there has already lost much of its original silver plating. So I think it's an ancient forgery but certainly of the time, not a modern copy! I've painted it red in the picture where I would think the core is coming through under the silver.

Rupert

[nigel nicholson]

Hi Rupert

I showed this coin to DR Adrian Popescu of the fitzwilliam museum and he has confirmed that the coin is genuine, and the the flaking was due to when the coin was struck the structure of the metal on the
surface changed and as a result that it became brittle.

Nigel

[curtislclay]

That's a scarce rev. type for Sabina, and quite rare combined with this bust type:  Strack 360 and pl. VII, listing and illustrating a single spec. in Vienna, probably same obv. die as yours.