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Message:: [QUOTE="Marsyas Mike, post: 4137511, member: 85693"]In my very uneducated opinion, the darker areas are surface toning/crud.  That is a lovely coin - I would not attempt to clean it.  But I'm a fan of ancient coin colors - good, bad and ugly. To illustrate, here are three Philip I ADVENTVS type antoninanus (I keep accidently accumulating them).  They could all probably be made more shiny, but I would not want to do that. It's not that I never clean coins, but it is a very rare occurrence.  And I have had several regrets - and some that worked out okay. [ATTACH=full]1070589[/ATTACH] Here is a Hadrian sestertius I performed a mild cleaning on.  Before anybody scolds me - it was already stripped when I got it - down to the brassy base metal <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie3" alt=":(" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.  But there was a dark splotch directly on Hadrian's mouth/nose area.  Very gently I rubbed at this area and lightened it and the coin looked much better. Given the stripped condition of the coin when I got it, I figured the risk was minimal.  You can still see the darker area around the mouth, but it is more in line with the rest of the coin and not so distracting - no regrets on this one!  Had the original patina/surfaces been intact, I wouldn't've messed with it. [ATTACH=full]1070590[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]