Interesting Ancient Coin I Found

[Stealth Hunter]

Well, I didn't find it. My father did and he gave it to me a long time ago. He found it when we went on vacation and toured Italy. I think it was on the outskirts of Rome. Don't remember, however. He found it and gave it to me as a gift. I just found it when I was rummaging around in the basement this afternoon (also found some old rials I'd brought along here).




The eagle bears a startling resemblance to the American eagle seal (although the head is turned to the left in the American seal; however, both the eagle on the coin and on the seal are facing in the direction of the sprig). I can't find out when it was made. Went to a Roman coin historical site and typed in "eagle", but none of the coins showed up with this design format. Tried "falcon", "bird", and "hawk", but those terms didn't find anything. Tried a Greek coin site just to check, but still no results.

If you look below the feet of the eagle, you will notice the word TOYE (or TOYI; can't be sure). The word on the left of the eagle begins with BIP, but I can't make out the rest.

Anybody have an idea on it?

[FIREWALL]

Nice coins SH. I hope you find out more info on them.

This is the kind of stuff I like to see on GT.

Thx for shareing.

[Raptor1]

Indeed, nice

I would've guessed Roman at first, but it doesn't look like any style of Roman coin I've seen...

Maybe It's an early Roman Republic/late/post Western Empire coin...

[Stealth Hunter]

That's what struck me as curious. Also, the writing on it looked Greek in places. I don't know what to make of it. We found it in Italy, it looks kinda like a Roman coin, but it also has Greek traits. I'm almost certain it's not fake (doesn't respond to magnets and the sides where the upper half and lower half were pushed together look like your average old coin).

If it is fake, then somebody really took a lot of time to work on it.

[SUBMAN1]

Problem is, currency could have been from anywhere, so good luck finding it. I'd suggest heading on over to a coin collector to see what he would have to say about it. There has got to be a coin shop around their somewhere.

-S

[nikimcbee]

Why does it says "made in China" on the side? I didn't know they made pirate money there?:hmm:

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Why does it says "made in China" on the side? I didn't know they made pirate money there?:hmm:

:rotfl:

Not quite, mate.

[Raptor1]

Can you make out the letters on the side of the Face side? (They look Roman, sort of, also Greek )

[Stealth Hunter]

Yeah, they do look roman; the one after the NEP is a curious symbol. Don't know what to make of it. Kind of a curly shape... like a child trying to draw a fish... I have difficulty making them out.

[Raptor1]

I know that one, It's a Greek letter

Edit: Gamma, γ or Omega, Ω

Could also be this (Most likely, I think): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qoppa

[Stealth Hunter]

Very good. Strange version of it, though. The symbol normally symbolizing OMEGA has a gap leading into the loop. In this case, it doesn't. The two lines cross over one another.

[Raptor1]

Assuming that's a Qoppa or a weird Omega, we can probably narrow it down to either early Roman or Eastern Empire/Byzantine (Assuming the other letters are Latin)

[bigboywooly]

Ancient coin site inc forum
Even has a help section you can post images to find out what it is

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/

[FIREWALL]

I emailed the pics of your coin to a local coin dealer.

He'll get back to me and I'll post his reply.

Until then I guess we can speculate if it's a coin, token, or something planted by the tourism bussiness.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

Assuming that's a Qoppa or a weird Omega, we can probably narrow it down to either early Roman or Eastern Empire/Byzantine (Assuming the other letters are Latin)

The bottom one is definately Greek. The others are anybody's guess. If it wasn't for the greek on there, I'd guess a slavic origin.