Unofficial GENIO POPVLI ROMANI

[Heliodromus]

Just received this one today.

Unofficial c.300-303 AD, copying London unmarked IIb (short-necked) style, with a "T" mintmark thrown in for good measure!

Size is 28mm 8.84g, a bit lighter than most (but not all) official coins from this time.

Presumably this has little-to-no silver content with the difference in price between the metal and face value being the profit motive, but unofficial coins from this date seem scarce enough that it can't have been really worthwhile. The later VLPP and Fel Temp types were much more heavily counterfeited and/or smelted for silver content, despite the official silver percentage being similar to this, which presumably reflects the rampant inflation opening up a difference in value between silver and bronze.

Not-so-great photo due to using my cell phone, since I seem to have burned out my Canon DSLR image sensor due to overexposing it with a home made (enlarger lens based) franken-lens.

[Victor]

pretty neat

[Severus]

I've got another neat example, ostensibly from Treveri.

[Victor]

not bad, it might have passed for official, if you didn't look too closely.

[Gavin]

Agreed. Looks like someone was copying a London small bust.

[Severus]

It's also notably underweight -- only 7.4g, even with the broad flan.