For the purpose of full disclosure to future owners of the coins below currently in my collection, I'll be recording the relevant quotes and keeping it together with the coins. ROMAN REPUBLIC. Q. Crepereius M. f. Rocus. AR Denarius. 3.69g, 18mm. Rome, 72 BC. Crawford 399/1b. O: Bust of Amphitrite or Venus right, seen from behind; octopus behind and E before. R: Neptune in biga of sea-horses, brandishing trident, [E?] above, Q. CREPER. M. F. ROCVS in two lines below. Ex @Andrew McCabe Collection CARACALLA AR Antoninianus. 5.19g, 24mm. Rome mint, AD 215. RIC 245c; BMCRE 121. O: ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right. R: P M TR P XVIII COS IIII P P, Luna Lucifera in biga of oxen galloping left, fold of drapery billowing in semicircle around head. Ex @stevex6 Collection; ex @Carthago Collection (“passed around CT like a doobie at a Phish concert”)
I need to tell you a little story that hopefully doesn't end like the story of Sanford Saltus. Last night I tasted a Croesus prototype heavy gold stater (apparently I had some desire to see if Lydian gold had any interesting-tasting impurities), and to my great surprise and horror, there was a strong metallic taste. Now those who like to taste coins will recognize that gold has no taste, so this is a problem. Lead? Arsenic? Cyanide? Let's hope I don't go down to natural selection. After waiting for a few hours to ensure that the taste went away and I remained asymptomatic, I washed the coin and then tasted it again. No taste. Good pure gold. But what did I taste before the cleaning? Maybe the spit of everyone who has tasted this coin over the past 2,580 years? Likely something worse than that. We'll see if I learn to wash the next coin before tasting.
For anyone who doesn't know, Saltus was the president of the New York Numismatic Club and British Numismatic Society when he poisoned himself with cyanide in a hotel room on a trip to London in 1922. Apparently he was using this cyanide solution to clean coins and had it sitting next to a glass of ginger ale. There is debate over whether he committed suicide over a secret engagement that wasn't going well, or whether it was just one of those misadventures in coin cleaning.
Well, I'm glad @JayAg47 revived this thread or I would've missed all this. And yes, of course we're all familiar with the practices described by @Andrew McCabe -- but I would add I am sure I am not the only one who feels a slight reluctance when it comes to coins suspected of having old French provenances. For those not familiar with the incident, below is the account of what happened while Jean Foy Vaillant was returning by sea with ancient gold coins acquired for, I believe, Louis XIV (at least in part, and at least some of which are still in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris), as given in his biographical sketch in the American Journal of Numismatics... Vol 12 (2), Oct 1877, page 39: ...one day the captain saw rapidly approaching them a piratical vessel of Salé. All hope of escape appeared in vain; the pursuer was no farther distant than the cast of a bolt from the cross-bow. Vaillant, looking out for himself and mindful of his former captivity, valorously swallowed the twenty golden coins restored to him at Algiers! Just then a high wind springing up, its impetus carried them near the shores of Catalogne, where they were almost wrecked. Soon after, the vessel was driven upon the sandy shallows at the mouth of the Rhone, where the cable having parted, and the anchor being lost, Vaillant entered a skiff, and, with four companions, landed upon the nearest shore. In the mean time, the weight of the coins he had swallowed - being five or six ounces - gave him serious inconvenience . He called two physicians into consultation, who, embarrassed at the new case, differed among themselves in suggesting remedies; this determined Vaillant to do nothing, and nature, a little later performed the task,- relieving him of more than half the coins before he entered Lyons. He narrated the case to a friend and fellow-student there, showed the coins regained, and described those yet to come. Among them there was a gold Otho.... Legend has it the ex-Vaillant provenance can still be verified by the methods discussed.
Enjoy a cup of kopi luwak, the only proper accompaniment when sampling your ancient enterally cycled aurei.
The ring test actually works on modern coins. I tested on a Norwegian silver coin vs a China fake. Don’t think an old denarius resonates well enough though.
Ok well this is my contribution. Not taste but smell so an olfactory observation. I also collect antique guns. In the gun community refinished guns are a "no-no" . If you have a gun that could be refinished with chemical bluing , if you rub it on your sleeve you can smell it - 100%. A period bluing never smells when you rub it. I attend some big shows like Tulsa and Reno and on occasion my shenanigans have raised eyebrows. Crazy Welshman.....
I would never drink/ eat with/ off gold cups/ utensils. I did eat chocolate gold coins/ after removing gold foil There are chemical traces in your saliva/ fingers/ best is never to taste/ touch a gold/ silver/ platinum/ paladium coin. "For eyes only"