Sadly, we've seen yellow and orange makeup on bronze coins for a while now. Especially busted up LRBs to hide pitting and to help Legends pop. Here's a particularly laughable example to highlight my point (see what I did there?): And even on coins that don't need it! If anything it cheapens this example: But now they are putting fake orange patina(toning) on SILVER!?!? my first reaction: Pretty clear evidence looking through their latest sale that they've been caught orange handed! To the owners of Zeus, I like your auctions and coins but for the love of Zeus put down the Cheetos!
They are like dog sh#t, literally everywhere Just a couple of examples of what you have when someone tries to remove it Gotta love that milky residue from the bonding agent
Just maddening! Beautiful coins that didn't deserve that. And what kind of agent would you use to get that glue off without damaging the natural patina? Here's some more doggie doodoo: Here's mud in your eye Ariobarzanes And here it appears they even mucked up a piece of electrum!
I wish i knew what to use @Ryro, could probably make myself a few bucks along the way I do already have a candidate for clinical trial though ( he says shamefully ) Any chemists among us want to suggest a solution ?
I don't doubt that you're right about at least some of these, but it's come to my attention that there are many bright red and orange soils in both Turkey and Syria, where many of these coins probably come from... so I'm hesitant to condemn before a little acetone proves the case. Your title reminds me of the time I got Robert Kokotailo of Calgary Coin to appraise my collection for insurance purposes. He was literally eating Cheetos at the time, and I was cleaning orange crumbs out of my Abafil for eons afterwards! No harm done, though. Some legit orange dirt on my Antiochos IV: Some legit red on a c. 100 BCE Yuezhi tet: Makeup? I don't think so, but maybe: I'm a bit scared to try the acetone on this one! But it could just have been cleaned in an aesthetically pleasing way:
Would need to see them in person, but those are probably the result of poor photography vs applied patina. They look like dirt but I'm guessing the color isn't really that orange. I purchased this one from a dealer many would recognize by the subject of this thread. What was thought to be applied yellow patina was in reality dirt. Dealer photo What it really looks like Small dirt I removed from edge
Good point about various soil types out there... but that neon orange is pretty out there. HILARIOUS Cheetos story You sure that's not how your Antiochos IV got its patina?? I wonder if acetone would work to get the adhesive off and if it would hurt the natural patina? I recently won a Ant Pius with Tyche much like yours. Though cannot find a picture anywhere!