Cast Postumus ants

[postvmvs]

A French seller recently posted a number of Postumus ants, ostensibly from a recent hoard, all with the similar rough and darkened surfaces. To me, these coins look like cast fakes, but I am posting here to get second opinions -- not looking to buy them, just looking for education. There are over a dozen coins, all Postumus, all different, but with the same looking surfaces and qualities.

Why I think it's cast: the surfaces of the coin look wrong, the metal color looks wrong, the surfaces appear artificially darkened. Details are soft despite the "strike" being strong. Cracks look filled.

Opinions? Am I looking at this correctly, or have these just been damaged by harsh cleaning and then attempts to hide the cleaning by artificially toning?

[Joe Sermarini]

Why do you think it looks cast? I don't see it.

[Dominic T]

I agree that the cracks really look odd. Or is it only the picture ?
DT

[postvmvs]

Some of examples of what I think I see "wrong" on the coin:

A) The large crack at 6 o'clock looks like it continued on the original coin, but is mostly filled in here.
B) Other areas of cracking don't end sharply
C) The color of the metal, evident everywhere on the coin, but less darkened in this area here looks "brassy"
D) Pretty much all of the elements: the bust, the figure, and the lettering "dissolve" gently into the surface instead of having defined edges. The circled letters was poorly struck on the original and only a blob here.
E) Surfaces have a grainy and sandy appearance

[Joe Sermarini]

Need bigger pics.

[postvmvs]

The only images are those from the listing, so I can't provide any further images of the first coin. But there are several more similar coins being offered by the same seller, so I have posted another example.

When I look at these coins, it sets off the internal detector in my head that "something is wrong" with them. I am not sure if that something wrong is that it is cast fake, or a genuine coin that has been abused and manipulated to the point it looks wrong. The surfaces and colors are definitely off. If an identical twin were to be found, that would prove it as a cast. At this point I am leaning towards genuine coins that have been heavily damaged during cleaning. For example, placed into a strong acid that leaches out selectively the silver from the surface ending up with an ugly copper colored coin, that was then attempted to be improved by dipping in darkening agent such as liver of sulfur.