Greetings from smoke choked Cupertino. Here's an owl that is almost the antithesis of all the bright and shiny examples being sold today. This coin came by way of Israel, the source of two other basically uncleaned owls in the collection. The coin below is the least cleaned to date. I was a little suspicious of the earth deposits, with the recent shenanigans on the part of some sellers marketing "desert patina", so immersed the coin in 100% acetone last night. The deposits emerged intact, and they really are quite hard, almost like cement. The black "hoard patina" also seems authentic. The coin weighs 17.4 grams, but I suspect that the weight would be in the neighborhood of 17.2 grams or so if the earth deposits were removed, which, of course, they won't, at least while the coin is in my care. I find uncleaned coins like these quite appealing. Perhaps this is a symptom of old age, where the collector indeed start resembling many of the coins he or she owns. So, having said this, the question that I put to the Forum is this: Is the coin, in your opinion, of Athenian origin, eastern origin or possibly from the Levant or Egypt? I am quite sure that this coin came from the Middle East region, either as part of a hoard, or as an individual find.
I really like that tet - most interesting to see it uncleaned like this, and I'm glad you aren't going to shine it up. The desert-like patina reminds me of this Crispina as I recently got - on first glance it looks like a sand patina, but it is very hard and in places even shiny like a more typical patina. I call it café au lait, though I doubt that will become an official term: Crispina Æ As or Dupondius (wife of Commodus) (c. 180-182 A.D.) Rome Mint CRISPINA AVGVSTA, draped bust right / [HIL]ARITAS S-C, Hilaritas standing left, holding long palm and cornucopiae. RIC 678; Cohen 20; BMC 428. (10.97 grams / 24 x 22 mm)
Thank you. A coin in this state is best left alone. Any attempt to strip away the heavy toning would be sheer folly. I've seen salvaged coins cleaned by electrolysis, and the result was normally an extremely cleaned, almost a polished look, with a lot of corroded surface exposed - absolutely awful. Here's another, "as found" owl from the same source - a nice coin, warts and all. 17.1 grams
The sand or soil patina looks good to me. Natural sand patina is very hard and impervious to acetone. Artificial sand patina applied with some bonding agent, such as glue, would dissolve in 100% acetone. Natural sand patina will soften, somewhat, if left in distilled water for several hours, but it is very tough, and any attempt to remove it, especially if it is thick, takes many steps. Also, the surface under the sand patina might actually be of a lighter shade compared to the exposed areas of the coin. This is especially true for bronze coins.
