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<p>[QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 6378397, member: 110350"]And now some more surprising news. I received a PM from another member here (whom I won't name), informing me that Henzen, the dealer from whom I purchased the OP (Numa Pompilius & Ancus Marcius/Desultor) has a reputation for repatinating ancient silver coins like the one I bought. There's certainly no disclosure of any such practice on his website (<a href="http://www.henzen.org" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.henzen.org" rel="nofollow">www.henzen.org</a>) or at his MA-Shops store, but looking at his other Roman Republican coins, a number of them do seem to have a similar gray or bluish-gray toning in the fields. My correspondent didn't answer a question about whether he knows if this allegedly artificial effect is obtained by a chemical process or otherwise.</p><p><br /></p><p>I know that there's a wide variety of opinion on the ethics of repatination (as long as it doesn't involve actual tooling or other recarving), and how much is "allowed" -- from chemicals (viz. Athena Numismatics) to artificial desert patina (Zurqieh) to actual paint. (FontanilleCoins.com had a couple of long essays on the subject that I read only a month or so ago, but they've now disappeared, and I can't even find them on the Wayback Machine.)</p><p><br /></p><p>If the allegation is true, it's disappointing that the dealer didn't disclose what he did. However, as long as there's no indication of recarving, I still like the coin and the way it looks -- a lot more than I like Athena's ridiculous blue artificial patina! -- and I'm strongly inclined to keep the coin nonetheless.</p><p><br /></p><p>Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether my coin looks repatinated, and, if so, how the result might have been achieved? Should I try to reverse the process? I'm reluctant to engage in amateur chemistry; I nearly flunked the subject in high school because I was so bored I never paid attention to our <u>extremely</u> elderly teacher droning away. (Supposedly, he lived with his mother.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 6378397, member: 110350"]And now some more surprising news. I received a PM from another member here (whom I won't name), informing me that Henzen, the dealer from whom I purchased the OP (Numa Pompilius & Ancus Marcius/Desultor) has a reputation for repatinating ancient silver coins like the one I bought. There's certainly no disclosure of any such practice on his website ([URL="http://www.henzen.org"]www.henzen.org[/URL]) or at his MA-Shops store, but looking at his other Roman Republican coins, a number of them do seem to have a similar gray or bluish-gray toning in the fields. My correspondent didn't answer a question about whether he knows if this allegedly artificial effect is obtained by a chemical process or otherwise. I know that there's a wide variety of opinion on the ethics of repatination (as long as it doesn't involve actual tooling or other recarving), and how much is "allowed" -- from chemicals (viz. Athena Numismatics) to artificial desert patina (Zurqieh) to actual paint. (FontanilleCoins.com had a couple of long essays on the subject that I read only a month or so ago, but they've now disappeared, and I can't even find them on the Wayback Machine.) If the allegation is true, it's disappointing that the dealer didn't disclose what he did. However, as long as there's no indication of recarving, I still like the coin and the way it looks -- a lot more than I like Athena's ridiculous blue artificial patina! -- and I'm strongly inclined to keep the coin nonetheless. Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether my coin looks repatinated, and, if so, how the result might have been achieved? Should I try to reverse the process? I'm reluctant to engage in amateur chemistry; I nearly flunked the subject in high school because I was so bored I never paid attention to our [U]extremely[/U] elderly teacher droning away. (Supposedly, he lived with his mother.)[/QUOTE]
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