Is it real? Alexander the Great Tetradrachm (large ancient silver coin) 0

[Samukai]

Hi, I have this tetradrachm struck in 311 in Babylon by Seleucus I (types of Alexander the Great). Is it real? It looks to have some file marks by the monogram and what looks like some smoothing/polished filemarks at the top of the coin on the edge. It weighs between 16 - 17 grams and is 26.5 mm in diameter. I definately thinks that it's silver and the details and surface looks pretty good, so maybe it's just traces of antique mounting, cause the filemarks on the monogram are very worn and old. Please help! Thanks

- Samuel  (sorry for the bad pictures)

[JKK]

I would be suspicious. I do not like the look of it.

[Conder101]

Out of my league here but I don't like the looks of it either.

[JKK]

The photo that says the most, to me, is the very last one edge on. I see one side, the obverse I think, ballooning up much larger than I've ever seen a device naturally sticking up. I try to figure out how it could possibly have gotten that way. It's like someone hit the reverse very hard with the round part of a ball-peen hammer, deforming it. Yet I don't see the effects of that on the reverse that I would expect. So I do not know what to make of it, but that deformity combined with other factors makes me very edgy. One of those factors is the too-perfect circle/strike/planchet; that can happen in ancients, but it is very rare. The other is that the overall look is consistent with known counterfeits, and Alex's silver coins are targets for the counterfeiters.

I can't say for sure it's bogus. I can say for sure I wouldn't take a chance on it.

[Just Bob]

14 hours ago, JKK said:

One of those factors is the too-perfect circle/strike/planchet; that can happen in ancients, but it is very rare. 

I am not an Ancients  guy, but I had that same reaction after comparing the OP's coin to pictures of genuine examples. Looks like a copy to me. 

[roety]

also the patina looks similar to many fakes,  lack of detail could be from being a cast coin.  even though the edge does not look cast as it doesn't have a seam.  I have been collecting ancients for a short while and see a lot of fakes (my first post here)

[BipolarBaby]

This coin doesn't appear right to me at all. 

[History&Coins]

Of course there's a limited amount one can tell from blurry pictures as well as not having the coin in hand.  Recently {well late 2018} I just bought my 1st Alexander tetradrachm.  I've been looking for the Babylon mint as well and just missed an mint state one but I did get a nice one from the Susa mint.  I need to rephoto it as happily the Gorny & Mosch  pix looks horrible compared to the original.

Your piece looks genuine to me.  It seems reasonably well detailed although beat to heck.  Note that Babylon pieces are not rare but they are much scarcer than the most common Amphiolis (spelling?) mint ones.  I don't see any problems with the color as all sorts of things have been done to these over the past 23 centuries.  I don't see any evidence of casting porosity or raised pimples.  Your weight seems good.  I don't know if a ring test works on these but one thing you can do is bring it to a pawn broker and beg him to do a couple free XRF (non destructive X-Ray flourescence spectrospcy) scans of the front & back.  I recall these as being pretty pure silver but perhaps some of the experts can fill us in.  If the coin is good silver, that goes a long way to indicating it's genuine as frankly I don't think a counterfeiter would make a piece in such beat up condition in good silver.

If you could use a bright light and perhaps get some better pictures of closeups of the obv & reverse, that might help. 

Edited June 19, 2019 by History&Coins