sometimes a good deal is not as good as you thought 1 1

[Glynn K.]

I had long wanted a denarius of Tiberius, known as the "tribute penny," though some scholars think it might have been a coin other than a denarius that Jesus held up in that famous encounter where he was asked "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?"  But that status as a Tribute penny made those things a bit pricey.  Still, a coin from AD 14 to AD 37?  Silver?  About the size of a modern dime but representing a day's wages at the time?  And the source of the "d" that GB used to denote penny?

I had another denarius or two not from the era of Tiberius, and those are a good bit cheaper.  Now I wonder if they're legit, too.  In their case, I didn't pay all that much for them and I bought them from what I hope was a more reputable source.  

This denarius of Tiberius I got from an eBay seller in Australia about 20 years ago for $97 best I recall.  At the time similar coins sold for a few multiples of that.  It did kind of put me on the alert but what the heck.  It's only money.

I finally sent it NGC and just got it back in a nice holder, not slabbed, with "NOT GENUINE."  Well, I plan to describe it as a genuine, modern counterfeit of an ancient coin.  I have a few other counterfeits that I bought knowing they were counterfeit and priced accordingly - not ancients.  I regret having sold a counterfeit peso, late 1800's, of Mexico.  It was a pretty good one, but when you dropped it you could tell it just didn't "ring true."  Plus, the counterfeiter, on purpose, put a clue on it that it was not real.  Where the mintmark goes he put a letter, I don't remember what letter, that was never used as a mintmark on any Mexican coin.  So there he was, making what looked like a pretty good real peso, but when he got to where the mintmark goes, he did not use the mintmark on the coin he was copying.  Ego?

I seem to recall that some counterfeiters do that.  They'll put a clue on the coin they make - I read of a pretty good $20 gold piece that was done that way.  But I don't do gold, real or counterfeit.

Pics of my mistake:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1 by Glynn K.
better pic of obv