I saved pictures from two listings, two months apart, on eBay. Thought it makes an interesting example of what happens to a coin at the doctor's office. The piece is a 1757 2 reales minted in Lima. Pillar fractional reales from Lima and Potosi are often holed and subsequently plugged, in this case not well enough to try and pass it as undamaged. The remainder of the coin has been selectively darkened, apparently to hide cleaning marks and give it a more 'attractive' contrast. before: after:
Wow! a startling contrast. The hole repair was done pretty well, I think. The "toning" is rather deceptive.
Neat. Looks like the Dr. even bumped out the rim in the area of the hole in order to fit things in. The darkening may also have had to do with surface color changes in the hole area caused by heating.
The doctor did a good job. It will not fool somebody familiar with the type, but it would deceive an inexperienced (and maybe some not so inexperienced) collectors. I think i better check some of my own coins.... Many of these have unfortunately been holed: I remember in my childhood my parents took the family to visit the Inca ruins at Macchu Picchu in Peru. I still remember that at the various train stops along the way, indian women would show us strings full of spanish colonial coins for sale. All of them had been perforated.
Wow, that is amazing. It is still clearly been plugged...but at a glance the coin looks much better. Gotta be careful.
Well it isn't a crude amateur repair but it isn't a quality repair either. There are people out there who can repair that hole almost undetectably.
I think it's a nice repair job -- good enough to improve the look but not so good as to be deceptive. The toning was well done.
