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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 24546106, member: 75937&quot;]It&#039;s important to evaluate a coin in terms of its historical context. By the reign of Philip I, the &quot;silver&quot; coins had become very debased, to about 1/3 silver and 2/3 base metal. The various mints (Rome and Antioch) were cranking these things out as fast as they could to pay for military campaigns against the Persians. They used the dies -- especially the reverse dies -- longer than they should have and they became worn. The coins may not have looked all that good when they left the mint in the first place.</p><p><br /></p><p>Over the course of being buried -- or chemically cleaned after finding them -- some of the metal may leach out of the coin, leaving them underweight and with a porous or grainy surface. These coins are typically found in the condition of your example: brittle, porous and with soft details on the reverses.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Pannekeet, Cornelis GJ. &quot;A Theory on How the Denarius Disappeared and the Debasement of the Antoninianus.&quot; <i>Academia.edu</i>, <a href="http://www.academia.edu/3784962/A_theory_on_how_the_denarius_disappeared_and_the_debasement_of_the_antoninianus?auto=download" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.academia.edu/3784962/A_theory_on_how_the_denarius_disappeared_and_the_debasement_of_the_antoninianus?auto=download" rel="nofollow">www.academia.edu/3784962/A_theory_on_how_the_denarius_disappeared_and_the_debasement_of_the_antoninianus?auto=download</a>.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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