This arrived from CNG today and the area around Vespasian's face has been messed with. Smoothing or tooling or wire brush but I'm not too happy with it. Nothing was noted and it was more subdued in their pics. I'm not sure if I want to keep it and I'm not sure how much to be annoyed with them. I'd like to hear the thoughts of the group on this one. Vespasian. AD 69-79. AR Denarius (18.5mm, 2.91 g, 5h). Rome mint. Struck AD 74. Laureate head right / Winged caduceus. RIC II 703; RSC 362. Good VF.
Under magnification, do you see any lines like brushing? I can't help but think maybe it might me a milky residue that doesn't come off what so ever, not even lemon juice. Your's looks thicker, if it is like mine. One of my Lucillas has that white, probably from cleaning. The reverse, all the bottom. Lucilla ( 164 - 183 A.D.) AR Denarius O: LVCILLAE AVG ANTONINI AVG F, draped bust right. R: VESTA, Vesta standing left, sacrificing from a simpulum over a lit altar left, holding palladium. Rome, 164 – 167 A.D. 18mm 3.3g RIC 788, RSC 92, BMC 325
I don't usually think of AR examples with smoothing and/or tooling, but perhaps it does happen, eh? ... the area in question does look a bit odd, but it certainly didn't "improve" the worth of the coin (if the fellow did attempt to smooth this example, he failed) ... it's probably just weird wear?
Yah, could be? => spoken by a modern coin collector that's been stung by cheap plastic flips, eh? (been there too)
Didn't think of that, could be why there is some green. Always use acetone and see if that helps, H8_modern.
The whitish areas are usually horn silver deposits (Silver Chloride). If it is just a surface coating you may be able to remove it. If it goes deeper then there could be pitting left behind. I would leave it alone if it is horn silver (not sure what else it would be).
It's difficult to get an accurate shot of what it looks like in hand. The area right around his chin is really smooth while the rest of the field has little micro pitting/ irregularities.
Ah, I thought you meant the whitish semicircle outside of that area. Maybe it was a tough spot that was smoothed. The surface there looks lower than the rest?
It's possible it's lower but it's not a dramatic concave spot. It could be an area protected by gunk or something while buried. I'm just not sure.
Reading the terms of sale, it looks like I don't have much recourse. It's not a huge deal, I'm just a little unhappy that there wasn't something about it in the description since it doesn't show up well in pictures but is glaring in hand.
it's still a nice coin, lot of detail. but i understand where you're coming from, it's not exactly what you expected.
The question is, can you be happy with it or will you always look at it and be displeased? If it's the latter, the quicker the piece moves to another collection, the quicker you'll be happy. It's a very attractive coin regardless.
Not smoothed in my opinion. Harshly cleaned more likely. Agree. I would welcome such a coin in my collection.
It looks it has been recently chemically cleaned (which was probably necessary if it had cement/deposits on it) and I think it's fine. Looks like a nice coin to me. If your unhappy with it, I'm sure CNG would like to hear from you as they would prefer you happy rather than not.
I agree with Carthago- tell CNG and my bet is that they'll let you return it (unless it was part of a group lot). This isn't buyer's remorse, but an error in their photography/description.
