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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1046939, member: 19463&quot;]One of the questions that makes the stomach queezy for some of us old time ancient collectors is, &quot;How do I clean my coins so they look bright as new?&quot;&nbsp; Modern collectors handle such questions by a hard and fast rule that you should never clean a coin but all ancients have been cleaned at least to the point of knocking away the several inches of dirt that buried them for the last couple thousand years.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Bronze coins sometimes develop a hard green surface coating known as Patina.&nbsp; This is not a microns thin film like the toning on modern coins but a modification and enhancement of the surface that takes centuries to form naturally.&nbsp; There are artificial patinas but they don&#039;t look the same certainly don&#039;t add to the value of a coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>My latest Falling Horseman of Constantius II has a green patina (not the nicest but not bad either).&nbsp; Last week I showed a completely stripped to metal and retoning coin which I repeat here for comparison.&nbsp; I suspect that several people here will prefer the stripped coin to the green one but they would not like what was left if you removed that green patina and took a lot of the surface with it!&nbsp; Please don&#039;t try.&nbsp; You can clean away dirt and soft encrustations but please stop when you get to a hard green layer.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The close up image illustrates that natural patinas tend to consist of several shades of green and often even have patches of other colors (red, blue).&nbsp; There are coins with complete patinas in the other colors but green is many times more common.&nbsp; Unfortunately many patinas are a bit thick and can obscure some detail but smoothing them to the point that they look better is an art few possess and a poor job really wrecks the value of the coin and will make many people suspect that the thing is a fake. </p><p><br /></p><p>Which surface do you prefer?&nbsp; I prefer the unpatinated coin but for several reasons having nothing to do with the surface.&nbsp; Green bronzes are pretty; some are really pretty.&nbsp; If you don&#039;t care for them, I suggest not buying the coin and leave them for those who do.&nbsp; Your chances of getting something pleasing by removing a patina is very, very slim.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Feel free to post coins you feel have pretty patinas.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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