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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Curtisimo, post: 2880075, member: 83845&quot;]It is from 1700 years of being buried in the ground. Almost all ancient coins need some level of cleaning when they are found (usually they are in coin hoards that were buried during times of crisis). Ending up with a coin that has rough surfaces and putting is always a possibility.&nbsp; You never can tell what you actually have until you fully clean the coin.&nbsp; Looking at your progress so far I think your coin is a good candidate to turn out nice with some continued cleaning.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><u>Denarius</u> - Was a silver coin that served as the backbone of the Roman monetary system from its introduction in 211 BC until it began to lose importance after the introduction of the Antoninianus in AD 215.&nbsp; It was struck in a heavily debased (very little silver) form until the reign of Aurelian and Severina ending in 275 (your example was struck at this time).&nbsp; It was also struck in limited numbers by Diocletian. It began at a weight of 4.5g in 211 BC which continually fell until it reached an average weight of about 3.5g with ever decreasing silver content.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>ANT = Antoninianus</u> - Was a coin issued by Caracalla that was decreed to be worth 2 denarii. However the weight was only 1.5 denarii so people tended to hoard the Denarius which led to the Antoninianus becoming the dominant currency. These were struck in large numbers from AD 215 until about AD 296 with silver content falling rapidly to an almost completely bronze coin that was coated in silver (silvering) by the 270s.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>FTR = FEL TEMP REPARATIO</u> - This is a coin that contains the Latin &quot;FEL TEMP REPARATIO&quot; on the reverse which translates to &quot;restoration of happy times&quot;. These were common in the mid AD 300s.&nbsp; One of the most popular types is called the falling horseman or FH because a Roman soldier is spearing a falling horseman.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]690092[/ATTACH]</p><p>Doug has a good page on forum about these if you&#039;re interested.</p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/ftr.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/ftr.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/ftr.html</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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