Here's is a 100%, no doubt, false desert patina. Because......... Here is the coin as the seller got it before it was doctored. Leaving aside whether this coin is very well cleaned or 'tooled' ........it is definitely a false patina. Question carefully coins that have this very smooth milky look to the patina (dirt).
That coin has a ton more wrong with it than fake desert patina. It's horribly tooled if that was the original coin.
I am surprised that such a practice exists. Now I am aware of it I am now wondering in something regarding a certain follis of Justin II which actually has two different patinas a yellow one and a green one. At the side where the “M” appears it is bluntly yellow patina. But on the side where Justin and Sofia are sitting the patina is completely green. – The difference is difficult to catch with my cellphone foto, but when looking at it in my hand the difference is more obvious. Anyone who can tell me whether it is normal a coin has two difference patinas on each side?
Yet another interesting so-called "desert patina" this time a bit uneven and probably attached to some oxide deposits on the surface of this rather rare FEL TEMP of Constans from Rome:
The figure of the emperor on the reverse is unusually elegant and detailed, but at 24-25mm it's enough space to let the scene breathe
This sort of thing has become very common. I've gotten to the point where I avoid anything that looks even slightly suspicious, that is, coins on which the dirt is too uniform in color and makes the devices look a little too good in relief. I'm probably passing on many legitimate coins, but c'est la vie. I don't want this sort of shit in my collection. I heap coals on the heads of the toolers and dealers that trade in this junk at the expense of novice collectors. May you all suffer irreparable financial calamities.