Post Your coin with a great Patina.

Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Dupondius (27mm, 13.17 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 148. Radiate head right / Annona standing facing, head left, holding grain ears and rudder; modius filled with grain ears at feet to left. RIC III 847. VF, green patina

 

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Ancients from Spain have a nice variety of patinas.

Green
Arse Saguntum

Brown
Abdera


Yellow
Olbulco


Red
Malaga


Black
Castulo

Castulo
I like the shadow effect the black patina makes under the belly of the sphynx.


Black green
Castulo

Black on a Kelse


Orange
Castulo

 

Some lovely patinas here folks! Allow me to throw in some more Chinese ones. Like @Severus Alexander and @TypeCoin971793, I prefer a heavy patina on Chinese pieces, especially early spades and knives. While such patina might obscure details on western-style coinage, I find it to only add to the aesthetics of these pieces!





Firstly, two patinas that are rather light for Chinese standards, but are still quite pretty. I love the deep, darker colours on the first spade (Xiang Yuan) and the spotty-nature of the patina on the pointed foot spade (Da Yin) gives it an interesting but attractive appearance.



Did someone say heavy patina? This very specific patina, with the colour combination dark blue and beige-red, is referred to as ‘Beijing-patina’ in Chinese numismatics, although not necessarily from Beijing itself. Besides being very difficult to fake, this is a very desired patina and often fetches quite a premium on Chinese auctions. In this case it is exceptionally thick; the characters have been completely obscured. But the awesome thing about this piece is that it is actually three fused spades as found!



Love the multi-layered and multi-coloured patina on this one! From barely patinated surfaces, dark coloured blue, different hues of light and dark green to a vibrant red and earthen highlights. What more could you want?



One of my all-time favourites. Not only is the patina absolutely breath-taking, the inscription is also amongst the most rare in my collection. As for my all-time favourite, it really can’t be anything else than this following hollow-head spade. Would you look at that bluish-green surface!

 

Some fantastic Patinas across the board, I really like the red Constantine David@PCC shared. That was beautiful.

 

Balbinus...or the Gerber baby!





Severus Alexander with a bit of yellow...

 

Patina: The surface of an object that has grown lovely with the passage of time and use”

Three of my coins I forgot in my previous post:


RIC Vol. I, CLAUDIUS, SESTERTIUS, Rome, No. 109, 42-43AD (38mm, 28.0gm)
Obverse depiction: Nero Claudius Drusus, bare head facing left
Inscription: NERO CLAVDIVS DRVSVS GERMANICVS IMP
Reverse depiction: Claudius seated left on curule chair holding olive branch,
weapons and armor beneath
Inscription: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG PM TRP IMP PP - S C (exergue)
Nero Claudius Drusus was the father of Claudius



RIC Vol. I, CLAUDIUS, SESTERTIUS, Rome, No. 112, 50-54AD, (36mm, 28.2gm)
Obverse depiction: Claudius, laureate head facing right
Inscription: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG PM TRP IMP PP
Reverse depiction: Civic Oak Wreath
Inscription in four lines:
EX SC
P P
OB CIVES
SERVATOS
(within wreath)



RIC Vol. I, CLAUDIUS, SESTERTIUS, Rome, No. 112, 50-54AD, (35.7mm, 27.9gm)
Obverse depiction: Claudius, laureate head facing right
Inscription: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG PM TRP IMP PP
Reverse depiction: Civic Oak Wreath
Inscription in four lines:
EX SC
P P
OB CIVES
SERVATOS
(within wreath)

 

CARACALLA DUPONDIUS...

 

This one just arrived, so here is a quick pic between classes. It is a Zhi Bai Wu Zhu, cast during the Three Kingdoms period. It has highly-attractive patina with some bluish hues. All for $15 delivered.



This one is very crusty, but the characters are still clear and the patina offers a nice color contrast.



While not crusty, the patina is absolutely glorious on this high-grade Wu Zhu.



Nice crusty Qi knife (with a tiny bit of crust added by me to cover up breaks).



Very pretty patina on this high-grade hollow-handle spade.



The patina on this very rare spade contains the outline of another spade buried with it on the reverse, sugessting authenticity.



This is a scarce transition-type spade with a rather thick patina, but still retaining clear characters.



The reverse of this hollow-handle has some very pretty blues in its patina.



And lastly, I fell in love with this extremely crusty Dang Jin spade when I first saw it in the sale of Q. David Bowers collection. The majority of this type does not have nice encrustation like this example for some reason, so I place extra value on those which do.

 

I still love that coin. I wish I had the money to also buy it during our visit. But I walked home with much rarer coins.

 

A few favorites...

 

A festival of colors all around !











Q

 

Q

 

Q

 

Here are a few more greenies. It seems that a nice even "green" patina commands a higher premium than one of another color, but I still am a sucker for the multicolors and reds, and nicely toned silver as well. This sestertius of Maximinus was described as having a "mottled, uneven patina" , in a somewhat pejorative sense, but I fell in love with the coin because of it. I think in an esthetic sense it better conveys the antiquity of the piece, and is more intriguing. Alas, "de gustibus non est disputandum".

 

Thank you to all of you for this festival of colours !


And if a coin is not really great, a good background colour maybe can help...

 

Wow! Love the trotter on the last coin! Nice, Cuke!

(And, of course, I am always partial to Carthage and Celtiberian coins!)

 

Love the Caligula quadrans. A lot of people don't know how scarce/rare this issue is. It was minted 1/1/41 to 1/24/41. Very nice.

 

Here are some of my favorite patinas. I prefer aqua green but I love all.



Ruler: Elagabalus (Augustus)
Coin: VF Brass Sestertius
IMP CAES M AVR ANTONINVS PIVS AVG TR P COS - Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
PM TR P IIII COS III PP SC - Providentia standing left, holding rod over globe and cornucopiae; in left field, star.
Exergue:




Mint: Rome (221 AD)
Wt./Size/Axis: 17.78g / 30mm / 12h
Rarity: Scarce
References:
RIC 321
C. 191
Provenances:
Artemide Aste



Ruler: Antoninus Pius (Augustus)
Coin: VF Brass Sestertius
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS PP TR P COS III - Laureate head right
ANNONA AVG, S-C - Annona standing right, holding two corn ears over modius with corn ears, and cornucopiae; prow to right.
Exergue:


Mint: Rome (140-144AD)
Wt./Size/Axis: 21.73g / 30.20mm / 360
References:
RIC 597a
Cohen 34
Sear 4147



Ruler: Antoninus Pius (Augustus)
Coin: VF Brass Sestertius
DIVVS ANTONINVS - Bare head right
CONSECRATIO - Funeral pyre of four tiers decorated with garlands, surmounted by facing quadriga; S-C across fields.
Exergue:


Mint: Rome (161 AD)
Wt./Size/Axis: 20.68g / 32mm / 360
References:
RIC III 1266 (Aurelius)
Banti 74
Provenances:
Roma Numismatics



Ruler: Antoninus Pius (Augustus)
Coin: VF- Brass Sestertius
DIVVS ANTONINVS - Bare-headed and draped bust right
CONSECRATIO - Eagle standing right on globe, with head left and wings folded.
Exergue:


Mint: Rome (161-162 AD)
Wt./Size/Axis: 30.68g / 37mm / 360
Rarity: Scarce with draped bust.
References:
RIC 1262 (Aurelius) var. (bare head only)
Banti 68
BMCRE 871 (Aurelius) note
Provenances:
Roma Numismatics



Ruler: Nero (Augustus)
Coin: VF Brass Sestertius
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER P M TR P IMP P P - Laureate head left
SC - S C: View of triumphal arch, showing front and left hand side; above, the Emperor in a quadriga escorted by Victory; arch is heavily ornamented and decorated with statues of Pax, Mars and two soldiers
Exergue:



Mint: Rome (circa 64 AD)
Wt./Size/Axis: 25.29g / 35.4mm / 6h
Rarity: Common
References:
RIC I 144
WCN 134
Provenances:
From the collection of a Texas Wine Doctor.
purchased from Paul Rynearson, 30 September 1991
Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.

 

I don't have many bronzes, but my favorite when it comes to patina is definitively this gorgeous little Roman Republican half lira with a sweet black patina with some blue spots



Anonymous. 234-231 BC. Æ Half-Litra (11mm, 1.79 g). Rome mint.

Obverse: Head of Roma right, wearing Phrygian helmet.

Reverse: Dog standing right, raising forepaw; ROMA in exergue.

Reference: Crawford 26/4