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<p>[QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 7813901, member: 72790"]In going through my collection recently I noticed that some of my silver is dark, very dark. Now I don't think what I have is the normal "cabinet toning" which tends to the dark gray. I have several coins which are a dark blue shaded almost black in appearance, metal surface and I got to wondering why some are so very dark. In doing some on-line research I found out a bit about "argentites" where coins have been exposed to silver sulfide or hydrogen sulfide or Sulphur hydroxide (disclaimer: I am no chemist) causing coins to darkly tone, especially in the presence of the decay of organic matter. That brought all kinds of images to mind which I mused on for a while. Ancient coins winding up in a trash dump or midden in a sea of decaying garbage. Ancient coins buried in a grave site or maybe a "Charon's coin" left to pay the ferryman. Anyway, with silver coins this dark, I wonder if something more than just time is involved here. Or am I wrong, that ALL silver coins being found in every original site come to us dark and, as most original coin finds are very dark, most are cleaned before being marketed. I ask readers if they know anything about such very darkly toned silver coins and how they may have arrived as very darkly toned.</p><p><br /></p><p>Something else I was wondering about in my musings. When silver coins are this dark does this affect, aesthetically speaking, their appeal? Their value? Generally I prefer my silver (and brass) to be lighter in tone as my students never spent much time looking at a coin that is too dark. Also I associate dark coins with corrosion and roughness (the three below are actually smooth as glass) but this may just my limited anecdotal observations and nothing more. if readers have some very darkly toned silver coins could they post them and tell us how they feel about them, whether they ever wonder how they got to be so dark and how they feel about coins being this dark.</p><p><br /></p><p>And now the coins. From the left, a Corinthian stater, Sear 2626, Ravel 384, Pegasi 126 and 8.6 grams. In the middle a siliqua of Julian II (the Apostate) from the Harptree hoard where quite a number of these coins are found very dark and are still on the market as such. It weighs in at 2.6 grams and is Sear 4071. The third is a silver drachma from the Caesarea Mint of Lucius Verus and is almost obsidian black on the reverse. These coins are abot 80% silver. RPCIV 3, Syd. 354 at 6.1 grams. So please post any of your very dark silver coinage and tell us what you think of such dark silver coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1342878[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1342880[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 7813901, member: 72790"]In going through my collection recently I noticed that some of my silver is dark, very dark. Now I don't think what I have is the normal "cabinet toning" which tends to the dark gray. I have several coins which are a dark blue shaded almost black in appearance, metal surface and I got to wondering why some are so very dark. In doing some on-line research I found out a bit about "argentites" where coins have been exposed to silver sulfide or hydrogen sulfide or Sulphur hydroxide (disclaimer: I am no chemist) causing coins to darkly tone, especially in the presence of the decay of organic matter. That brought all kinds of images to mind which I mused on for a while. Ancient coins winding up in a trash dump or midden in a sea of decaying garbage. Ancient coins buried in a grave site or maybe a "Charon's coin" left to pay the ferryman. Anyway, with silver coins this dark, I wonder if something more than just time is involved here. Or am I wrong, that ALL silver coins being found in every original site come to us dark and, as most original coin finds are very dark, most are cleaned before being marketed. I ask readers if they know anything about such very darkly toned silver coins and how they may have arrived as very darkly toned. Something else I was wondering about in my musings. When silver coins are this dark does this affect, aesthetically speaking, their appeal? Their value? Generally I prefer my silver (and brass) to be lighter in tone as my students never spent much time looking at a coin that is too dark. Also I associate dark coins with corrosion and roughness (the three below are actually smooth as glass) but this may just my limited anecdotal observations and nothing more. if readers have some very darkly toned silver coins could they post them and tell us how they feel about them, whether they ever wonder how they got to be so dark and how they feel about coins being this dark. And now the coins. From the left, a Corinthian stater, Sear 2626, Ravel 384, Pegasi 126 and 8.6 grams. In the middle a siliqua of Julian II (the Apostate) from the Harptree hoard where quite a number of these coins are found very dark and are still on the market as such. It weighs in at 2.6 grams and is Sear 4071. The third is a silver drachma from the Caesarea Mint of Lucius Verus and is almost obsidian black on the reverse. These coins are abot 80% silver. RPCIV 3, Syd. 354 at 6.1 grams. So please post any of your very dark silver coinage and tell us what you think of such dark silver coins. [ATTACH=full]1342878[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1342880[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
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