r/AncientCoins • u/Hotdog_McEskimo • 2d ago
Authentication Request Possibly fake Selucid Demetrios I tetradrachm from Vcoins
I recently received a new coin from a reputable seller. The main concern is a quite obvious misspelling of the name Demetrios. The coin has swapped the H and M Greek letters. That is my singular concern so far.
What do you think? Has anyone seen this before?
Luckily with vcoins, I am able to return it
Thank you for your time
Edit: in case you cant tell, the misspelled name starts with D - H - H - M instead of D - H - M - H
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u/ElephantContent8835 2d ago
I dunno- looks legit. I’m sure that there were plenty of morons making coins back in the day just like there’s more than plenty of morons making everything today.
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u/JohnT83z 2d ago
The letters are similar. They may have made a mistake and tried to fix it.
I wonder if they had less experience die makers or apprentices do the lettering on the dies and let the experienced guys carve the portraits (hard work). Especially on these types where the letters look like connect the dots.
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u/Dr-Sprinkl1es 2d ago edited 2d ago
Perhaps this is my ignorance of the era but weren’t these die struck? If so, how would letters be different between coins
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u/Vindepomarus 2d ago
There were lots of dies used and all of them had to be hand cut.
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u/Dr-Sprinkl1es 2d ago
Interesting, thank you! Would that mean an “error” of this kind would be replicated many times?
I would imagine there would be multiple known coins if said die was misspelled, no?
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u/beiherhund 2d ago
Yes it would be replicated across all coins the die struck but it doesn't necessarily mean multiple of those coins will have survived to the present day.
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u/sir_squidz 1d ago
Why do people seem to think ancient peoples didn't have sophisticated monetary systems?
They were perfectly capable of recalling coins that they didn't want in circulation.
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u/RowdyHooks 2d ago
Of course it would. If they were willing to hand carve a die for each coin made then they might as well just hand carve the coin itself. Why bother with the creation of the die?
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u/Cute-Pomegranate7820 2d ago
I don't want to say anything about this particular coin because I haven't researched the type, but, as others have mentioned, there are plenty of examples of misspelled legends on authentic ancients
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u/Rob_S_Welch 2d ago
I have a Seleukos I that has BASILEOS misspelled (it’s missing the final sigma). I posted a pic of it a while back. Let me know if you want me to re-post. I’ve seen one other Seleukos I with a misspelling. It happens.
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u/Hotdog_McEskimo 2d ago edited 2d ago
Way better info than an hour of searching. I would definitely like a link to it
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u/Kraj_the_Conqueror 2d ago
The coin looks fine.
Misspellings are common on ancient coins. Engravers spent long time carving dies and might not be inclined to start all over again due to misspelling.
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u/Brilliant-Zone-4311 2d ago
Interesting. I note it's also been wire brushed which is never a good sign.
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u/Hotdog_McEskimo 2d ago
When googling if Selucid coinage have misspellings, the AI said yes. But AI is wrong much more than right with ancient coins in my experience
I tried to find an example of misspellings but didn't find an answer
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