Time Heals All Coins

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by gsimonel, Jan 19, 2020.

  1. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    I started out collecting ancients by buying small lots of uncleaned coins--mostly LRBs, lots of slugs. I found that if I used a green 3M scouring pad on the slugs I could remove enough of the patina from the raised portions of the coins, exposing bare metal while leaving the lower areas dark, to create a cameo effect that often revealed enough detail that I could, at least partially, identify the coin. As I grew more experienced and learned more about the hobby, I came to regret this harsh treatment that I'd inflicted on some of my coins.

    Now I'm reconsidering. The coin below has me thinking that maybe what I did wasn't so bad after all. It's an as of Domitian--a bit scruffy and dog-eared from wear. As you can see, it was harshly over cleaned some time in the past, with exposed bare metal on the high points. But I think it has aged and toned nicely, and I like its current appearance. I hope all the LRBs that I "cameoed" many years ago will look this nice someday.
    Domitian_on.jpg
    Domitian, A.D. 81-96
    Rome mint, A.D. 92-94
    Obv: IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM COS XVI CENS PER P P
    Rev: MONETA AVGVSTI - Moneta, standing, facing right, holding scales in right hand and concucopia in left, between S and C
    RIC 756
    26mm, 11.3g
     
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  3. Gavin Richardson

    Gavin Richardson Well-Known Member

    How long might it take a bronze coin to become re-patinized? Is that something that can occur in one’s lifetime? Over, say, 20 or 30 years, or is it something that develops over hundreds? Of course I’m not talking about coins that someone has reburied for a while, though I have heard of collectors actually doing that to try to catalyze to patination process.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2020
    JulesUK and panzerman like this.
  4. Cucumbor

    Cucumbor Well-Known Member

    Has the Domitian been overcleaned or just hold in hand/pocket enough that the high points didn't develop as much patina as the rest of the coin ?

    I have to much respect for ancient coins to be brutal towards them :D

    Q
     
  5. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    I agree 100 percent! Ancients, well all coins really are works of art to be admired, not abused/ handled improperly.
     
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  6. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    I think that's highly unlikely. It would take much longer for normal wear and tear to remove the patination from the high points of a coin like this than it would for it to simply darken like it is now. In my experience, coins with bare metal tend to darken within a few years of being exposed to air. If forced to guess, I'd say the OP was probably cleaned around 10-15 years ago.
     
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  7. Cucumbor

    Cucumbor Well-Known Member

    My meaning was that handling/pocketing may have prevented from patination through years/centuries, not that they have removed the patina.

    Not sure "pocketing" exists though, but you know what I mean ;)

    Q
     
  8. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    I hate to be a party pooper, but mostly all coins have been recycled. I would are say most coins in collections have been struck from metal which had been melted down and reused time and time again. Look at one example, when English pirates, plundering Spanish gold/silver coinage/ bars under "Royal" directive, the stolen loot was melted down and restruck as English/ British Crowns/ Guineas etc. Most sovereign governments took their worn out gold/ silver/ copper coins/ melted them down/ struck new ones. This is esp. true for gold/ which is very soft/ hence wears down quicker.
    John
     
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  9. lehmansterms

    lehmansterms Many view intelligence as a hideous deformity

    Of course almost no one smokes any more - and smoke in the air acted as a strong toning accelerant in this scenario - but even with our relatively cleaner indoor air, leaving a coin on a window sill where it is exposed to light, and hopefully direct sunlight for some of that time, (a kitchen window is ideal as the cooking "fumes" will help) will create at least the beginnings of a natural toning/patina on bare metal in a couple of months. If it's a place that gets a lot of direct sun, try wrapping the coin in a single layer of newsprint (I know, almost no one reads physical newspapers any longer either, but that's the general sort of paper I'm referring to) or other crudely finished, high acid-content paper. The sunlight will accelerate the toning process by liberating sulfur from the paper.
    As in all "kitchen table chemistry", YMMV.
     
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  10. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    I haven't experimented, but I'd guess the cardboard used in cereal boxes and the like would be pretty high in acid. There seems to be no shortage of that.
     
  11. lehmansterms

    lehmansterms Many view intelligence as a hideous deformity

    Old paperback novels are another source of "cheap" high-sulfur paper - pretty much any old paper which yellows with age/sunlight will do. You probably don't want to go with cereal-box cardboard or other paper products that exclude all light because the sunlight that gets through the paper wrap potentiates to reaction inside.
     
  12. Pishpash

    Pishpash Well-Known Member

    Bury the coin in your garden, set your alarm for around 1,700 years, dig it up, if it isn't ready, bury it for another couple of hundred years.
     
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  13. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    I'm actually conducting this experiment right now. Last summer I was photographing some coins on my front porch when I dropped one of them (a really nice Constantine I SARMATIA DEVICTA) and it rolled under it. I crawled under and looked for it, but couldn't find it.

    I doubt that I will still be living at the same house 1700 years from now--high tax area; I hope to retire soon, so I'll probably have to move--but hopefully whoever discovers the coin in 1700 years will report to the group what he/she found.
     
  14. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    Maybe someone in the far future will find it with a metal detector...and think that the Romans somehow made it to North America.
     
  15. lehmansterms

    lehmansterms Many view intelligence as a hideous deformity

    Glen, why not crawl back under the porch with a metal detector?
    Who knows what-all you might find that has slipped through the cracks over the years?
     
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  16. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    That's not a bad idea. Of course, the metal detector would probably cost more than the coin is worth. I'd need to come up with something else to do with it afterwards.
     
  17. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    I do not know where you live and whom you know but around here there are many people who would be happy to help with a searh like that even if they knew in advance that you get to keep the coin.
     
  18. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    I live in Westchester County. I can't think of anyone who would like to search for coins with a metal detector, but I'm sure many people here would offer to send their gardeners, housekeepers or nannies to help me.
     
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