Responding to SDAI-Tech1's comments:

>I always figured those were too easy to counterfeit. They
>always seemed appealingly cheap for their vintage whenever
>I'm in Germany. Almost too cheap. Roman Emperors seemed
>a dima a dozen and the few markings would make it easy to
>cast one in wax and make countless more. As a result, I bought some old roman coin with a big nosed guy once, but left it at that.
>I always imagined some one with a big smelting pot pounding
>out ancient coins for travelers and tourists.

There are alot of fakes out there. I got started in ancient coins working as a volunteer at a university museum documenting ancient coins under supervision of a classics professor. After I completed my graduate training in aeronautical engineering, I moved to Goettingen and had a letter of introduction to one of the classics professors who worked at the Georg-August-Universitaat. That professor was a world famous ancient coin numismatist. Again, I apprenticed myself as a volunteer to him and he taught me a lot about ancient coins. Over the years, I've handled and documented thousands of ancient coins. I can instantly recognize most fakes. Most of the fakes they sell to tourists are easy to spot. Typically they are casts and have an easily recognizable part line or file marks along their edge. High quality fakes are almost impossible to identify. For example, high end Sicilian decadrachma fakes from Syracuse or Akragas are struck from steel dies that were electro arc engraved from authentic coins. The blank used for the fake was made from near worthless worn smooth demidrachmas or obols from the same city and era. Several of these smaller coins are combined to form one decadrachma blank. Because the original coins came from the same city of origin, the elemental and isotopic composition will be correct. After striking the fake coin, the forger stews the coin in some chemicals to get the patina right. Supposably the Sicilian mafia were behind the fabrication of these high quality fakes. Nobody with good sense will buy an expensive Sicillian decadrachma unless the coin has a known pedigree traceable to the hord from which it was found. The most common silver fakes are called "Slavis" after the Bulgarian die engraver who makes them. HIs fakes are very nicely done but they're easy to spot because their style isn't quite right and the patina is wrong.

Your big nosed emperor is probably Vespasian. I own a couple Vespasian sesterces. They're good quality for the money. Post a transcription of the inscription around the emperor's portrait and I can tell you more about your coin.

>The Euro has also destroyed a lot of nice European coinage.
>The Marks were never much to look at, but the French and the >Italian coinage had some attractive designs.

I agree. The French made lovely coins, particularly the 10 Franc coin. I quite liked some of the modern German paper money. Some old traditions were wrecked when the Germans went to the Euro. For example, it's an old tradition in Niedersachsen for a bride to buy her wedding shoes in Pfennigs.

>Walking liberty halves appeal to me even more than peace
>dollars. I agree, the St. Gaudens 20 dollar gold is quite attractive
>but rather costly. The large cents had some ugly "lady liberty"
>types. Coronet cents were worse than the previous flowing hair >types. I suspect the flowing hair type seemed to much like
>"lewd abandonment" to more straight-aced Americans of the
>early 19th century.

I stongly support depicting young attractive scantily clad women on coins. It's one of the reasons why I like the St. Gaudens 20 dollar gold piece so much. If I was emperor of America, we'd have the world's lewdest coins. The women depicted on 19th century American coins tended to be fat and ugly, e.g. the Morgan dollar.

>When the Carter Dollar (SBA) and, later, the Pocahontas Dollar
>came out I nearly wretched. I actually submitted a design for the
>new dollar when they had the competition. However, it was far too
>attractive to merit serious consideration. As we all know...post
>WWII American money must be recognizably ugly next to other
>currency.

I whole heartedly agree. The Susan B. Anthony dollar may have the distinction of being America's ugliest coin. The Pocahontas Dollar has an almost Walt Disney silliness about it. However in defense of modern American coinage, a few of these state commerative quarters are quite pretty although they'll never have any numismatic value (too common).

Gary