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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 2358405, member: 56859&quot;]Personally, I don&#039;t think there is a definitive way to tell when the sandy patina is hard (if it is soft, I think it is most likely fake). </p><p><br /></p><p>The coin you show looks like it has has very hard &quot;crust&quot;.&nbsp; My guess is that it is real, but those hard patinas can be created with fine sand/dirt + superglue or some type of glue.</p><p><br /></p><p>I suggest that if it doesn&#039;t come off when you scratch it with your fingernail, just leave it alone.&nbsp; If it comes off with a gentle scratch or is soft, soak it in water/alcohol/acetone to remove whatever gunk someone put on it lest the substance damages your coin or hides/causes active corrosion.</p><p><br /></p><p>Interesting (alarming) article about cleaning, patinas, tooling, etc:&nbsp; <a href="http://www.fontanillecoins.com/tooling.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.fontanillecoins.com/tooling.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.fontanillecoins.com/tooling.htm</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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