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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;R*L, post: 3136680, member: 96878&quot;]The copper deposits on the surface don&#039;t necessarily indicate that it is a fourree, particularly (as Doug notes) as the deposits appear to be over the silver rather than under it. </p><p><br /></p><p>There are a couple of other possibilities - it may have been hoarded with copper coins (see Doug&#039;s article here <a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/grade3.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/grade3.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/grade3.html</a> - scroll down to the second to last coin on the page). </p><p><br /></p><p>Alternatively, the copper might have leached from inside the coin itself - Septimius Severus debased the silver content of his coinage quite severely during the course of his reign. A lot of his denari are a high % base metal (usually copper). I understand that after minting they were treated at the mint with acid so that the copper on the outer layer of the coin was depleted making the coins appear pure silver but over time the residual copper in the core can &quot;leach&quot; through to the outer layer. </p><p><br /></p><p>If you want to get all academic about it have a read of these:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/362473/H._Gitler_and_M._Ponting_The_Silver_Coinage_of_Septimius_Severus_and_His_Family_193-211_AD_A_Study_of_the_Chemical_Composition_of_the_Roman_and_Eastern_Issues_Galux_16_Milan_2003" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.academia.edu/362473/H._Gitler_and_M._Ponting_The_Silver_Coinage_of_Septimius_Severus_and_His_Family_193-211_AD_A_Study_of_the_Chemical_Composition_of_the_Roman_and_Eastern_Issues_Galux_16_Milan_2003" rel="nofollow">https://www.academia.edu/362473/H._Gitler_and_M._Ponting_The_Silver_Coinage_of_Septimius_Severus_and_His_Family_193-211_AD_A_Study_of_the_Chemical_Composition_of_the_Roman_and_Eastern_Issues_Galux_16_Milan_2003</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://ijcs.uaic.ro/pub/IJCS-12-15-AlZahrani.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://ijcs.uaic.ro/pub/IJCS-12-15-AlZahrani.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://ijcs.uaic.ro/pub/IJCS-12-15-AlZahrani.pdf</a></p><p><br /></p><p>NB there is a similar example on a Dominion coin here (Ctrl F: CAESAR AVG F DOMITIANVS will take you to the right coin) <a href="http://esty.ancients.info/imit/isitfourree.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://esty.ancients.info/imit/isitfourree.html" rel="nofollow">http://esty.ancients.info/imit/isitfourree.html</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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