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While relatively scarce for a 4th century issue, overall, it's still relatively common. Given the average grade and the cleaning issue, I would expect it to likely have a retail value of about $10.

I'll also join the consensus in saying that this appears to be a regular Canadian quarter that's been subjected to an acid attack.

I understand your thoughts about this being a hollowed out coin, but this is far from being one - if anything, you'd want it to be clean and presentable, and not something that "sticks out like a sore thumb"

Welcome!

Your piece is a bronze folles of Maximinus II, struck circa 312 AD.

It depicts Sol* holding a cornucopia, and the mintmark ANT tells us that it was struck at the Antioch mint.

The brassy colour, as noted, appears to be the result of improper chemical cleaning - there are some bronze hints showing, though.

Rotations can vary widely for ancient coins.

*Sol, the Sun God, was a predominant religious figure in Rome from the 200s into the early 300s, until Constantine's open conversion to Christianity in 312 AD led to the rise of the monothestic God.

Around that timeframe, lower grade "as" (a bronze coin that's somewhere between quarter and half dollar size) of Augustus can usually be had in that price range, and some other provincal bronze as well. But in quantity would be difficult - it's not the type of thing that even an ancient specialist dealer would usually have a dozen (or even half dozen) of on hand.

Welcome!

Hello,

Yes, it appears that one of the layers of colour was printed off-set, which is a recognized type of error.

Happy Birthday, Dear Friend.

It might be the photo, but the obverse appears to possibly be heavily cleaned.

Welcome!

Welcome!

 

Good to know but now something that I'm adding to my collection. BUT since they're struck by a US Mint in circulation quality shouldn't they be included in the Mint Set by definition?

It seems that since S mint coins aren't currently released for circulation, the S-mint ATB quarters are not part of the mint sets.

I can see where one can easily make an argument that current D and P strike halves and dollars are found in numismatic products only, so there isn't really a reason why each current mint set can't have the S- quarters thrown in.

Welcome!

Welcome back!

More precisely, it looks like it comes from the "Civil War Coin Set" as seen at http://www.westair-reproductions.com/Civil+War.htm

Modern copy of an 1653 English shilling.

There are three key giveaways:

1. Hammered silver coins don't have rims

2. A very porous look often seen on cast pieces

3. The incuse stamped initials WRL indicate it was manufactured by Westair Reproductions Limited (see http://www.westair-reproductions.com/)

BTW, you may wish to consider resizing your photos which not only improves download time, but your own upload time

The grading of any coin that is already TPG'ed will always inevitably be prejudiced.

For such a jump, you'd need to crack it out and re-submit raw.

Always fun to find something "floating around"

Thanks!

I think we've got ourselves an answer :-)

All the best with wherever your path takes you :-)

 

I don't think "S" strikes any coins for general circulation these days. All of their output is for special sets. Someone please correct me, if I'm wrong on this.

Not for general circulation, but circulation / mint set quality (non-proof) have been struck for a little while now, and sold at the same $35 price per bag of 100 ($25 FV) as with Philly and Denver 100-quarter mini bags.

http://catalog.usmint.gov/everglades-national-park-2014-quarter-100-coin-bag-EV3.html?start=undefined&q=undefined&cgid=product-schedule

I think S mint circulation strike rolls and bags are available for purchase from the mint.

But they're definitely not circulating since I am getting all D mints here.

Lovely pieces and excellent photos - thanks for sharing! :-)

I'm not familiar with early Roman (say pre-100bc) bronze coinage, but the design doesn't exactly strike me as something I'd expect for that era.

Excellent topic!

My view (and I should preface by saying that I'm not really a note collector) is that UNC should have no faults.

My bank for one runs all notes through a counting machine and hands counts them before distribution, so they're always going to have a slight corner bend, which to me, renders them to be UNC- though the note from a technical (regular use, not grading use) definition would be "uncirculated."

What I look at is whether or not there are folds. So as such, I would consider a stained note, or a stapled note to be UNC, though of course both would be discounted considerably (except for a note which is usually issued in stapled packs).

But even for me, things can get messy when dealing with notes printed on wavy paper - since it can be hard to discern if there were any minor folds.

And when the item enters the slab - now it's virtually impossible to assess - without the opportunity to closely examine the lay of the paper...