Valentinian II AE-4

"Don't eat yellow snow."

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I would get it if it was something I wanted.

 

interesting pics JA...i forgot to mention.

i remember TIF (you can chime in here if you would like to clarify TIF) purchased a lot of alexandrian tets that had some type of fake desert patina on them...like make up or something? or maybe that wasn't attempting to be patina?

 

Yep. Makeup, or something very similar to makeup.

It dissolved with rubbing alcohol.

Thanks for reminding me-- I need re-examine all of those coins. Some of them had some verdigris under the makeup but it could be early stages of BD.

Numerian, before and after makeup removal:


Constantius I reverse (Elpis), before and after:


Numerian's South Beach look

 

I think I know her, um, him, um her.....

 

As I see it there are two questions here: How do I tell a fake patina from a real one and should I remove a patina I believe to be fake? As a guideline I try to avoid coins that appear to be rough under the sand so if I removed the sand I would be left with a coin I don't want. The OP Valentinian looks like it could be attractive underneath but probably not as attractive as it is now. The $25 question is one I won't touch. Opinions will vary on that.

Should I remove a suspect patina. I usually don't unless it comes off just by wiping with a tissue (as TIF's make up coins would). Perhaps I should try harder but soaking in water will also remove many genuine sand surfaces and I do not want to know badly enough to ruin a coin finding out. The best point made above in this thread, IMHO, was not to buy from dealers who have 95% matching sand patinas in their stock. Most of these are Middle Eastern but when I resell a coin I buy from them that does not make the patina more genuine, does it?

Below is a sand coin I hope is not fake sand. It passed the Kleenex wipe but I am not going to subject it to scrubbing. I do not plan on selling the coin. If I did, would you buy it or do you think it is a glue job? Certainly it has been buffed or scrubbed to remove sand from the high places but was the sand original or recently added? This is not my favorite part of the hobby. If I were a dealer and had to sell the coin, what should I say to a prospective purchaser? If I were a dealer and you offered to sell me the coin, what should I say to you? Is there a place where ethics and ignorance conflict?

 

Just received a response from the dealer

"Yes this is original patina."

All the best

-Man some people are horrible liars