hey kids! who wants a free byzantine coin?! well, before you get excited...here it is. here are the rules. 1. you must be a young collector under 18. if no kids want it, maybe i'll expand this a bit. but kids get first shot! 2. ask you parents if it's ok to get mail from some guy on the internet, please get their permission! 3. you must live in the united states...i'm just using a spare stamp and envelope here, no more. 4. when you get the coin post it with a paragraph write up about heraclius...that's one of the figures on the obverse of the coin. tell us something beyond the info on the coin flip that comes with it. and use proper grammar and punctuation unlike me! 5. eat your vegetables and stay in school. 6. send me a pm with you address and the coin will be on it's way soon, first come first serve. 7. OPTIONAL: take a proper picture of this poor thing.
I'm 18 does that count? lol I dont have any coins in my collection pre-1794 and always wanted to get involved in ancients but there is SO much to learn about them. -Kyle
Thank you so much! It will be the first ancient coin in my collection. And lol I'll be sure to load up on the string beans
I would suggest either chrsmat or K2Coins work on neutralizing the verdigris on the coin before it grows. I bought this ancient coin for $10 in 2008 when it had a level of verdigris that wasn't too noticeable and seemed insignificant. I had it stored away and didn't look at it for quite a while so this coin hit me by surprise recently. I am going to treat it with Verdicare but I don't think it'll be as nice as it once was just eight years ago.
I noticed this as well, how would you consider treating it without using vedicare (I dont have access to it at the moment)?
Ok, the coin has a new home....that went fast. I'm a bit surprised. it's pretty stable NOS, the dark green stuff is rock hard and hasn't changed in the two years i've owned it. the rest of the patina isn't green like it looks on the pic, it's dirt type stuff.
Yah, the green grungy spots look nice & friendly, rather than looking like flaky bronze disease (the coin looks like a winner ... well, it looks like it doesn't have BD anyway) Nice => that's a pretty cool idea, chrsmat (you're kinda like Byzantine Santa, eh?) .... oh, but I'd ask for proof that K2Coins eats at least a kilo of green beans!
We really have to get over this irrational fear of anything green on a coin. Bronze disease is horrible but it is a very specific type of corrosion. Coins with hard and stable green spots are in no danger and should not be treated for a disease they do not have. Similarly, I wish there were a way of giving 'beginner' coins to kids who would appreciate them but asking young people to send contact information has become so politically incorrect that it simply is not the good idea it was when I was young. That is what local coin clubs are for but the kids I have seen there would rather have a 90% silver dime than a LRB. Most of us probably have appropriate 'kid' coins but matching them up with the kid who would appreciate them for more than what they are worth would be hard. The best we have in this regard was ACE (Ancient Coins for Education) but the price of the uncleaned coins they once gave to schools and individual essay winners led to them being dropped by most public schools leaving only kids being sent to expensive private schools who could just as well go buy their own coins. I wish I knew an answer here but I do not.
Good call => man, I don't trust that chrsmat character at the best o' times!! ... Just jokes, coin-buddy (but it is kinda sad/true ... nobody wants their kid to have a friendly-older-gentlemen-internet-friend, eh?) ... yup, we're livin' in kinda sad times, that way Ummm, but I'm fairly sure that chrsmat's awesome gesture will be received positively (ummm, or please phone me for a coin-character-reference, if the cops end-up busting-down your door)
Terrific gesture Chris!!! If we come up with a place we could all send our 'kid' coins I would be all for it as well...I'm offering nearly a hundred of these types to my nephews kids or their school district in Delaware....but no responses as yet.
i thought about this quite a bit, and landed on the side of it being kosher. then i thought about it some more this morning. in hindsight, i'm glad my taker was a young adult and probably won't do it again. i'm not going to give stevex as my character-reference!
@ C71. Man there's a chance that this coin might scare the kids. I wish I was more generous than this.
if someone doesn't like my free coin, i will offer them a complete refund as long as they return the coin and pay shipping.
I fully agree. BD is relatively easy to spot, it looks fuzzy and produces holes which become powdery green. If anyone has coins with hard green blobs on them like the op coin which they fear have BD and they want to get rid of them....... Please send them to me, because I actually seek out coins with green deposits on!!!!! My vcoins advanced search terms are... 1. Cleaning (as in ....would benefit from further cleaning 2. Green deposits 3. Green patina I'm not joking either.