before i pull the trigger: Agrippa upgrade

I'm a little embarrassed by my Agrippa:


This is what i'm considering as an upgrade:



What do you think?

 

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Is the patina real?

 

Yep i like too.

 

Looks fine to me. If it's been repatinated, i wouldn't mind, as long as he hasn't had any plastic surgery (aka tooling)

 

I wonder if there's some porosity that is being hidden by an artificial patina. I can't say this with any certainty just from a photo. But it's done very often, and it's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the photo.

 

For the benefit of my understanding, what are the clues that the patina is artificial?
My understanding of patina, is that it's oxidisation - which can occur naturally over long periods of time, or can be induced artificially much more rapidly

 

Depends how it's done. Artificial patinas aren't necessarily bad. Sometimes, though, dealers just smear shoe polish or some such garbage to conceal the fact that the coin has recently been stripped. Like Bondo over dents in a car. If it's stable and doesn't rub off, it might not make much difference. It does look nice.

 

Yeah... the coin looks good to me. As long as pits haven't been filled, smoothed and masked, or something like that. Bronze requires a lot more scrutiny than silver or gold.

 

Your understanding is correct. Usually you are just speeding up nature by exposing a bare surface to sulfur in one form or another. But sometimes dealers will cover a surface with garbage that doesn't belong there.

 

Oh. And if you're embarrassed by your current Agrippa, I'd be happy to relieve you of your embarrassment!

 

I like the new one. It is a worthy upgrade

 

haha may i see yours?

 

Fair is fair. I think you'll agree that your is much nicer:

Bronze As
Rome mint, reign of Caligula
Obv: M AGRIPPA L - F COS III
Rev: Neptune, holding small dolphin and trident, standing between S and C
RIC (Gaius) 58
28mm, 9.1g.

 

Those are respectable Agrippas

 

Patina looks fine to me. It's a nice looking coin. Not all coins were buried in soil which gives them a heavy patina. When they're found in jars or pots they tend to look like the above.

Here's mine.



What I love about these coins is that the same inscription can still be seen on the Pantheon

Here's another of mine with the same type of patina


Augustus Æ 26
CAESAR
Bare head of Augustus right

AVGVSTVS
in Laurel wreath

Seleucis and Pieria. Antioch mint

26mm, 13.6g.


Scarce.

ex-Incitatus

Wildwinds example
Scratches on both sides are not as pronounced in hand.

 

A very nice example to upgrade your current Agrippa! Lovely patina.

I have one that I wanted to show you but I can't find it