Please help with probable fake Roman denarius

I would be grateful for help with confirming whether a denarius I was given
recently is a fake. I think it has a "fake" feel about it but I would like
to know if Roman Imperial Coinage has anything with this particular
obverse-reverse combination.

Weight of coin is right for a denarius but the flan is remarkably circular
and well-centred with no striking cracks and a sort of "fuzzy" look to the
design. By - I show where the legend splits around the top of the head.

Obverse: ANTONINVS AVG PI-US PP TR P XVII laureate head R.

(just like RIC229a)

Reverse: COS IIII Antoninus Pius standing left, dressed in senatorial toga,
holding globe in right hand, possibly a sacrificial knife(?) in left hand.
I think
an identical or very similar picture to this is on the reverse of RIC 241,
an aureus, but that coin has a different legend.

My suspicion is that the coin was obtained by a British soldier during a
visit to the Middle East while on a military tour of duty in the 1940s.
(Most Roman coins sold to tourists in bazaars are fakes; selling real
antiquities was and is illegal in most countries.) The current owner can't
be certain about this but is related to said soldier who gave him Middle
Eastern coins. But he is not a collector and I would be surprised that he
would end up with the one unique Roman coin not listed in various online
sources, which I have searched, with nothing quite like it turning up.

So if RIC has no such coin known it would confirm my suspicions.

Thanks for any help,

--
Mike Dworetsky

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