Finding Find Patina

Well said @jamesicus. I had a friend who inherited a large coin collection. They sent me pictures to help them put a value on it. Sadly they had polished up all the silver, wiping away old collection toning and a significant amount of resale value.

 

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A recent silver purchase, specifically for its patina:

 

part of a small group of Alexandrian coins that have impressions of other coins on them-- bronzes, not silver though.

 

Those are incredible Victor! Are they yours?

That phenomenon is fairly common to find on Asian cash coins but quite rare on Roman.

SC

 

Yes, they are mine. I have several others...mix of different coins spanning several centuries.

 

Here's one of Antoninus Pius:

 

So many beautiful and interesting coins in this thread. It's too bad the majority of silver coins have been cleaned down to bare metal.

 

Here's a coin from the Pixodaros Hoard. CNG had 5 or 6 in the same auction. Somebody bought one, cleaned it and sold it for half the price a few week later. Photo courtesy of CNG.
Mine is still with find patina.

 

Here are some examples of nicely patinated objects that I collect:

Ancient Roman coins:


Silver denarius (toning/patina)


Bronze follis (patina & remnant silver wash)


Circa. 1900 Maydole claw hammer (unused - handle with original label)


Maydole circa. 1900 hammer, unused (original handle and head stamp)


1795 British Light Dragoon flintlock pistol (original varnished stock)
Frequently polished brass fittings (to detriment of patina)



Light cleaning of iron parts, otherwise original finish.

These are the kind of finishes and surface conditions I cherish on my collectibles.

 

Very nice coins and an auspicious start to 2021 for you.

This is the most recent example of a coin with a "find" patina. In reality most coins are cleaned, to varying degrees, as they emerge from the ground.

I like dark patina coins. While they are not as flashy as the bright, near or mint state coins that often command hefty prices, they convey the fact that they are indeed really old coins.

Ptolemy I, tetradrachm in the name of Alexander III, Cyprus, probably Kition Mint. Svoronos 124. 14.7 grams



Now, there are many instances where a coin emerges that is so encrusted, that any attempt to remove the deposits may very well leave little else, as is the case with this fourre coin from the Middle East.

 

These all look cleaned and not as found

 

These two indeed look like find patina, certainly the legionary and the Vespasian quite likely – tho it might have a superficial clean, the thick black patina and dirt between devices suggests its never been cleaned of the patina.

Many of the others in this thread have clearly been cleaned of most or all of their original patina and some perhaps toned later. Thus cabinet patina not find patina. Or in some cases not much patina at all

 

Agreed @Andrew McCabe , the major portion of these coins posted here in this thread are not as found patina. I did plenty of metal detecting for almost five years every weekend and never found almost any coin that looked like most of these.

 

Here are four more examples, although I guess one could argue that the first one might have been partially cleaned and is re-toning. Coin #4 has also been partially cleaned, but still retains much of the "original" find deposits and patina.

 

No question about it. I'm going to look through my collection again but I think I only have three coins (that I've posted in this thread already) that I would comfortably call find patina.

 

These have never been cleaned other than with a rose thorn to remove encrusted earth.

 

Gordian III coins are many times cleaned to a sparkly silver finish. I like this one because it's pretty close to as found.

I bought this Domitian for $9... now I wish I'd left it like I'd bought it but did scrape off the black bust. Sorry for the poor after photos.... I promise I didn't scratch it... but I only have an old photo.