While doing some re photo work on my ancient and medieval coins today, I think I was not careful enough with this one, and later noticed it was in several pieces. I only handled it with my fingers, and may have forced it a bit in removing from the album. Not a huge loss, only paid about $33 for it, and also I learned a lesson about these old, thin AR coins. This is a 1519 Hungary AR Denar of Vladislaus II, before and after pix. There are a few small fragments, and I wonder if I should try to glue it back together, save it in a bag, or just toss it?
Sorry for your loss, but shit happens. Exactly the same happenend to me, while handling an alsacian Liliengroschen.
ah bummer dude!... its a terrible ordeal..i had an ancient do that on me getting it out of its cardboard holder getting it out for pics...but i do have one of these Louis ll deniers i bought when concentrating on Habsburgs & Hungary..
Yeah, happens fairly often, more often with thin coins. Years ago someone was trying to make a major differentiation between hoard found and ground finds. His point was individual ground finds can shatter like this due to nature of burial, whereas those found in pots were better protected and therefor not as likely to shatter. He had a point, but the differentiation did not really catch on.
I like the idea of saving the pieces. You could frame them with a photo of the coin before it went to pieces.
Sorry to hear it shattered. This is always my fear with a thin 14/15th century Hungarian denar I have. I definitely would not throw it away though! I'll take it before it comes to that Unfortunately I would be the last person to give advice on repairing a coin as I have no idea.
I wouldn't toss it, even in pieces it's still an old artefact. One of many perhaps, but each one is now irreplaceable. I'd personally put it in a cardboard 2x2 to keep the pieces together. After feeling bummed for a few days, that is :-/.
Bummer! For a silver coin, the metal over hundreds or thousands of years becomes crystalized in certain environmental settings, especially in the case of burial, where the coin can subjected to moisture and chemical reaction with the soil and surrounding coins, in the case of a hoard. The metal alloyed with the silver, usually copper, leaches from the surface, leaving a brittle, porous surface. This brittle property, especially for thin coins, can make them break easily. I wouldn't try to cement the fragments together.
If you want to reattach, use a medium thin (more viscous, not the gel type) of store variety super glue, if the pieces are an exact fit. if some spaces between, use a thicker, more gelled cyanoacrylate. benefit here is that that glue is infinitely removable with acetone. And acetone doesn’t damage metals. so should you change your mind, you can give it a short soak and return it back to its original condition relatively easily
Thanks to all of you. I am thinking I will put the puzzle back together, pushing pieces around with a toothpick, and then carefully apply some superglue. Fortunately, the shatter occurred as I was removing it from an album pocket, so all the smaller pieces remain in there. I just wonder what kind of surface I should have beneath the coin when I do this glue job? Paper would become glued to the reverse. Maybe glass? I could possibly lift it off with a razor blade.
You might try something as simple as scotch tape for the backing, should be easy to remove from glue, I imagine. I would test that hypothesis empirically first, though.
