Pantikapaion Silvery Coin

South East Asian EBay seller Antique Galary plaza  (255 100% positive) located in Bangkok, Thailand has a tempting antiquity for sale: "Greece, Bosporus, Pantikapaion Silver Stater Coin 20mm. - 6.60 grames" for a mere US $299.00 or Best Offer (Free Standard International Shipping)

This silver stater coin from Pantikapaion, dating back to between 450 BC and 100 AD, is a truly remarkable piece of ancient history. With intricate details and a weight of 6.60 grams, this coin is a must-have for any collector of ancient Greek artifacts. The coin was manufactured in Greece and features a beautiful design that captures the essence of that era. This coin can be a great addition to any coin collection or as a gift for history enthusiasts.

Oh yes. The specifications are a little puzzling:

"Historical Period: Greek (450 BC-100 AD)
Cleaned/Uncleaned: Cleaned
Composition: Silver [oh yeah? PMB]
Provenance [sic PMB]: Ownership History Not Available [shame, eh? PMB]
Era: Ancient [sic PMB]
Grade: MS 70 [wot? PMB]
Country/Region of Manufacture: Afghanistan" [uhhhhh....? PMB]

Well, lookie-lookie here, what have we here? First of all, the seller does not attempt to describe it. Does he even know what it shows?

The obverse shows the head of a bearded satyr (Pan) facing three-quarters left, with long dishevelled hair and pointed horse’s ear.
The reverse is a bit disjointed but shows a winger figure something like a lion-griffin standing left on large wheat or barley head, horned head facing, spear in mouth, off foreleg raised, with the inscription Π-A-N.

I think this is supposed to be a hemidrachm of the fourth century BC but that would have a weight of around 2-2.5ish gm. and be smaller.

Far from being from "Greece", this type of coin is from Panticapaeum (Pantikapeion, Panticapaeon or Pantikapaion), in the Tauric Chersonese/Chersonesu/os that is just outside modern Kerch, at the eastern tip of Crimea .... RUSSIAN OCCUPIED Ukraine. So how did it get on the market, eh? Where's the documentation of legal excavation and export?

That's the first thing any collector should ask.

Second thing, any collector should be taking a second and third look at any "antiquity" being sold out of Banghkok. It is not an area of the world that was acquiring antiquities fromn the classical world in the heyday of the "good old days of collecting" (18th/19th century to about the 1920s) but it is an area where today there are LOTS of fakers and dodgy dealers>

Any collector should (in the case of coins) look at the stated weight, and ask themselves if this is (a) silver - does not much look like it to my eye and (b) if this is a struck coin, not cast. Now it has bold crazing, often touted as a sign of genuine old coins - but this looks a bit 'off' to me. Secondly those bobbly bits looking like casting bubbles on the obverse are a big no-no for me. As is the generally 'soapy' appearance over all, the way the raised design merges gently into the background (so not suggesting a cut die) and the disjointed design of the reverse suggests to me that the maker of the mould really has no real concept of the "reality" of the mythological figure from the classical past being depicted. It looks too much to me like it has been slavishly copied from a picture with no real understanding of the form of the depicted subject. This is often a dead givewaway that something is of modern manufacture by an artisan working outside the cultural traditions of the authentic (and has never actually seen a lion-griffin, dead or alive).

The seller is either very honest or clueless in (a) claiming it is from "Afghanistan" and (b) presenting the picture of the edge of this thing. Instead of showing a flan that has been distorted by being flattened with no small force between two opposing dies during striking, we can see very clearly a series of toolmarks intended to remove..... a casting flash (!). We can also see how the metal has coolecd differentially in contact with the face of the mould and deeper inside the casting.

the question that is of interest to me, is this object a product of a Ukrainian workshhop or Thai one? The range of other products sold by the same seller seems to suggest the latter.

I'd buy it, it is not an illegally excavated ancient object smuggled out of Crimea, it is an interesting simulacrum (not a replica as the size is wrong) and thus collectable. But not at that price. Let the seller admit what it really is and price it accordingly.