Are these supposed to have cast marks on the edges like this? I bought this from someone would purchased it from a reputable seller, but the seller does not specialize in ancients.
You can compare yours with many other similar coins. Start at
www.ptolemybronze.com
and click on the 'coin photos' link to see many others.
PtolemAE
That's a great resource. I sent a long time on there lol. They didnt have the edge information unfortunately.
Exact appearance of edges varies a great deal on the hundreds of different
types of
Ptolemaic bronzes. Some are highly regular, some are 'beveled' usually with the
reverse a
bit larger, and some are beveled from both sides like this one. Others that are perfectly OK appear to have 'file marks' (apparently where casting sprues were removed) that would make some people suspicious who are familiar with 'filed edge'
fake coins, many have some degree of cracks or other irregularities including prominent remains of casting sprues with an almost triangular cross-section, etc. Nothing about yours looks especially odd. The metal discs were
cast, then often smoothed in a mechanical device, then struck. The mechanism of striking of these very large sizes remains unknown as the force required to do it
had to be enormous on such a large surface
area.
Enjoy - always cool to have
ancient coins like this that are so big and impressive.
PtolemAE
