A recent eBay purchase - 1902 Mexico Peso, Zacatecas mint. Can't resist coins with dark patina like this.
Nice one, so many of these are cleaned and/or banged up. Really a great example of the type and one that has clearly never been cleaned
Dark patina yeah, but are you sure its original? Looks pretty flat luster wise. Cleaned coins can retoned as well, and usually have a habit of retoning uniformly like this one. Not meaning to hate on your coin, just commenting that I have seen many cleaned coins retone like this one. Uniform toning and lack of luster. How does the luster look in hand?
The patina obscures the luster somewhat, but there's light luster in the devices and lettering. Also no visible hairlines and cleanly graded by PCGS.
Regardless of it's cleaned or not-cleaned status, I think you got a nice piece there. Lots of us here at CT have a healthy suspicion of any better-looking coins that are "old" like this one. Cleaning was so prevalent in coin collecting for years.
What do you "was" as from reading on these forums here there are a lot that still do it and it drives me nuts! By all means if it was to preserve the coin from further deterioration and being eaten away by time, then not such a bad idea. But when they make mild solutions to take off hazy look that just irks me.
"But when they make mild solutions to take off hazy look that just irks me." Taking the haze caused by the mint plastic off of brown Ikes makes them look great, just like they came from the mint. I guess if you want crappy looking coins you could take a nice proof Ike and look at it through some wax paper.