NEAPOLIS: Scary beauty

[Optimus]

Enjoy!
Any comments welcome 

[bpmurphy]

Looks modern to me.

Barry Murphy

[Optimus]

Looks, but it's not. Edges are perfectly OK and I've seen the coin before it was cleaned.

[cogito]

I'm with Barry on this one.  The edges may look o.k., but it's the fields and high-relief on the obverse that set off my suspicious streak.  The series has been faked for centuries and for good reason...it's a beautiful coin in its own special way.

Do you have weight, specific gravity, diameter measurements, etc.??

Jeff

[esnible]

Can you supply a picture taken at an angle?  This piece looks "rough," like I'd expect an obol to look, not a stater.

[arethusa]

Well, the coins looks very, I mean very suspicious - I will tell fake on 99%

[slokind]

The coin presumably is made of metal, of silver.  Your photograph seems to be made of plaster or of pastry.  Could you just give us a picture of it that looks like a coin, so we can see (at least virtually: see the reflections off it at least) the metal?  Frankly, it is a perfectly correct and well assembled Archaic gorgoneion, but if its fabric is unsatisfactory it could have problems, especially if it were line for line like a published one.  These 6c gorgoneia are generically identical but individually unique.  Diameter and weight also, de rigueur.  Pat L.

[Optimus]

Hi there,

Coin is made of silver, of course. The reason it looks so is that I took the picture in the open with my camera under very bright sunlight. Also, the coin has been cleaned from some sediments which explains the surfaces. Before the cleaning the back of the coin was covered with a considerable plaster of "horn" silver on the reverse. I saw it at that state which makes me really think that it is original.
I do not have the coin at hand and cannot give ither pictures. In any case, the edge shows the typical microscopic irregularities and has aged well. Simply the strike on the obverse is very high and this creates the impression of something "artificial".
Of course, I do appreciate these discussions. In the same time, it just comes to show to what extent fakes have entered our trade so we always think of this possibility first...

[Robert_Brenchley]

That explains something; I was wondering why both coins you showed us had the same unnatural apprearance. I notice nobody has questioned the other one. I wouldn't have bought either on eBay, but it could well be the lighting.

[cogito]

I'm understanding you correctly...unnatural color and unusual high-relief are a byproduct of heavy cleaning and tooling to remove layers of horn silver?  If so, then I can buy it being authentic, but then one is presented with the difficulty of one day selling a coin that is suspect secondary to over-cleaning and tooling.  This would be one of those instances where "before cleaning" pictures are going to be necessary to ward of future choruses of suspicion, like those intimated here.  I hope you had the foresight to snap a few photos before the cleaning process.

Regards,
Jeff

[Optimus]

Jeff,

Coin is not mine and I am not selling it. I do not have pictures before the cleaning. I think you should distinguish between overcleaning and necessary removal of unwanted deposits. I also prefer "virgin" coins but, hey, life is not perfect and such staters do not emerge only in pristine state. Of course, the history of the coin will be reflected in its price...

[cogito]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be hostile or anything.  I was just trying to understand how the cleaning process resulted in such sharp features.  Also, I have a few horn silver "infected" coins and it is instructive to see how removing these deposits results in strange silver tone.

Regards,
Jeff