This is the oldest coin I have. I believe that it is from England 1686-1703 Post your favorite Ancients here! We like to see them.
correct doug, it is definitely portugal, apart from the commonwealth and rose/maltravers farthings, british coins from 700 ad onwards have always shown an effigy of the monarch/lord protector
Funny you mention green. This was one, of Pius, I was contemplating on posting instead. Edit: and here's another green one for Doug
I, too, like green patinas but often have to face the fact that it is extremely unusual to get a perfectly even green with smooth surfaces without someone having gone too far smoothing or polishing the coin. It is not always easy to draw a line whether a green coin was smoothed too much to be 'natural'. After all coins do not get a green patina without being buried in soil with certain circumstances that produce the green (you don't get green keeping a coin in your sock drawer or in a sealed slab). When you wash away the soil and expose the green the surface can be rough and not perfectly attractive. Smoothing can improve the look but too much polishing can make the coin look unnatural. Too much smoothing can break through the green and expose metal below with results that can be uglier than no patina at all. We always hear from people who say no coin should be cleaned but they generally have no concept of what happens to ancients in a couple thousand years. I'll attach five green coins in various degrees of green conservation. You can decide which is attractive and which is not - no matter, none are for sale. Polished green coins are really hard to photograph.
