New Guy Needs Help with Coins

[Gunner]

Hello All,
I'm new here and hope you guys can help me out.
My Grandaughter is a US Soldier and while in Afghanistan she bought a couple old coins that I think are extremely old. I'm hoping somebody can tell me how to find out what exactly they are and a value.
My Grandaughter was told one of the coins was a....Dimitrius the first of Bactria.
So can you guys tell me something about them? I will post some pics of them.
Here is a link to one that I think is the same...http://coinindia.com/MIG0103v-Demetrios1-168.08.jpg

Thanks Much for the help

[Daniel]

I hate to comment but these coins don't look authentic. No matter where you go in this world there's counterfeit coins and most made in China. So I forwarded the coin to our ancient coin expert and see what he has to say about them.

[jjfnumismatics]

Very hard to determine authenticity from those photos.
They look like ancient Greek Baktrian silver drachmae, but they also look like modern forgeries of Baktrian drachm coins.
To tell, you either need very high quality photos, to show them to an expert in hand, or , in the case of documented fakes, match them against identical fakes published in forgery databases.
Sorry i can't give a more definitive answer, but with ancient coins, you need close scrutiny.

[Gunner]

[quote="Daniel"]I hate to comment but these coins don't look authentic. No matter where you go in this world there's counterfeit coins and most made in China. So I forwarded the coin to our ancient coin expert and see what he has to say.

Thanks Daniel,
I'll be interested in what your expert has to say. If I go to a local coin guy, should I expect him to be able to tell me if they are counterfeit or not? Again, thanks for the input!!

[Gunner]

I am now deciding whether or not its worth my time to try to determine if this is fake or not. Can anybody give me an idea what the value of these coins might be. If we are talking $20, I won't spend a lot of time on it. If it's a few hundred bucks, I will pursue it. So, can you give me a ball park price of genuine coins.
Thanks again

[mhonzell]

I think you have positively identified the first coin's reverse. I can't make out the obverse in the photo, but it should not have any legends.

It may be a fake or imitated coin, but this is what it depicts.

King of Baktira: Demetrios I. Circa 200-185 BC.
Tetradrachm or Obol
Reverse: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ
Herakles standing facing, crowning
himself, holding club and lion skin; monogram to
inner left.
Obverse: King’s head in Elephant-skin

It's an Oriental-Greek-India coin, so it doesn't look normal.

[mhonzell]

I think I just figured out your photos...
The top left is the reverse of coin one and the bottom left is the obverse. That makes it the coin I provided a photo of and may actually be a nice coin. There are about six variations of this coin. So, you'll have to look up the specifics since you can see it. (http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/b ... ios/t.html)

The one on the right is distinguished by having two busts on one side of the coin. Not too many of those types.

Better photos would still be nice. (It could still be a modern day tourist token... but I can't tell from the photos.)

[pahwa]

Welcome to the site Gunner. Have fun.

[Gunner]

Thx for the help. I located an ancient coin "expert" in the area and will have him check them out. I'll post when I find out what I have.

Again thanks to all