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Author Topic: Claudius as - real?  (Read 877 times)

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Offline Marc B3

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Claudius as - real?
« on: December 05, 2021, 02:22:01 pm »
Hi all.  I just made a purchase of a Claudius coin.  I researched the dealer and he has a solid reputation.  The reason I am posting it is because I have read that many of these Claudius coins were ancient forgeries.  I wanted to see what you all thought. 

 28mm, 11.43 grams

Thanks.



Offline SC

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Re: Claudius as - real?
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2021, 02:28:49 pm »
Ancient forgeries are still genuine ancient coins.

However, yours seems to me to be an official issue coin, though some of the imitations were very good.

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Offline djmacdo

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Re: Claudius as - real?
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2021, 07:34:11 pm »
Looks good to me--and I really like the portrait!

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Claudius as - real?
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2021, 07:45:46 pm »
There were so-called "Barbarous" coins of Claudius, probably from a provincial mint, but yours looks like an official coin to me.

Offline PMah

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Re: Claudius as - real?
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2021, 09:49:42 pm »
As Shawn indicates,  the ancient imitations were routinely accepted in commerce.  They were likely made with approval by local or regional authorities to fill the need for coins for day to day transactions. They are usually very close to the weight and metal content of official coins.  Since they were essentially tokens, local acceptance was key to using the coins.   It was a long way from Rome to northern Gaul or western Hispania.
  This specimen looks official on the obverse; the reverse less so, but it may have been imaginatively cleaned at some point.
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Offline Marc B3

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Re: Claudius as - real?
« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2022, 09:42:58 am »
Hi all.  As an update, I sent this coin to David Sear.  He said that he felt confident that it was from a provincial mint, probably Britain.  This coin was sold to me as minted in Rome.  I like the coin and am fine with it being minted in Britain.  My question is, would that significantly change the value of the coin?  I'm wondering if this is something I should mention to the dealer from whom I bought it.

Thanks,
Marc

Offline SC

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Re: Claudius as - real?
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2022, 09:50:39 am »
Assuming that official Rome mint issues are not only of proper style, but also on full-sized, round flans with well centered strikes, then the vast majority of Claudian asses I have seen, or that you see for sale on websites, are not fully official.

This would match what people like Duncan-Jones have written about bronze coin shortages of the time and coin distribution.

So, unless you paid a premium for a specifically Rome mint coin I would not be worried.

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Offline lawrence c

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Re: Claudius as - real?
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2022, 08:46:55 pm »
I have a similar Claudius, but it's sestertius size with the rough weight of a dupondius. These reportedly commonly were minted around a number of military camps in the provinces, particularly in Gaul and Britain. Some were countermarked DV, indicating that they were tariffed as dupondii. Even though they were not 'official', they apparently were at least semi-authorized.

 

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