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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1824519, member: 42773&quot;]I have a similar coin, and my conjecture is that it was harshly cleaned at some point, perhaps by electrolysis, and that it has re-toned either naturally or artificially (by way of a copper darkener.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Mostly I find it unappealing, but not always: it depends on the other merits of the coin and just how much of the raw metal is showing through. But the Tiber patina argument may also hold some weight. It&#039;s conjectured that bronze found in clayey substrates exhibits this sort of patina naturally - evidently coins found in the alluvial deposits of river basins have this look to them. I don&#039;t know how true that is, because only rarely can we trace a coin&#039;s provenance to the location it was found.</p><p><br /></p><p>Curiously, my one example of this kind of patina is from Rhesaena, Mesopotamia, and may well have been found in a river bank. I&#039;ll dig up the pics in a minute...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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