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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 4977871, member: 19463&quot;]Most definitely!&nbsp; I fully agree that coins with zero silver look better than those with part silver - especially when that part is defined as patches here and there.&nbsp; I do not know exactly what process is used most often but I find it hard to believe that coins could survive in full mint state with no wear and still have lost every speck of the original silvering.&nbsp; There is also the matter of there being some collections, hoards and sales that match too conveniently in terms of color.&nbsp; Certainly we know that all ancient coins have been cleaned to one degree or another AND we know that the difference between natural toning by exposure to substances in the air and &#039;artificial&#039; toning where the coin is exposed to those same substances in one of several ways is mostly a matter of time.&nbsp; I do not avoid rapidly retoned coins as much as I wish I could simply because I want the type coin more than I want one with totally &#039;natural&#039; surfaces.&nbsp; Here on Coin Talk we have discussed frequently the differences between cleaning, smoothing, tooling and repatination in a number of ways from placing the coin in a sunny window to painting it with face makeup (or just paint!).&nbsp; Where each of us draws the line is a matter of personal preference. </p><p><br /></p><p>The coin of Probus below illustrates what I consider a particularly unattractive mix of silvered and silver free blotches.&nbsp; Could I make the coin better by removing the silver wash?&nbsp; Should I?&nbsp; </p><p>The obverse is not bad but the large, unsilvered area of the reverse at the top is bothersome to my eyes.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1196085[/ATTACH] </p><p>The one below retains almost no silver save one patch that makes Probus look like he is sneezing.&nbsp; Not pretty.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1196086[/ATTACH] </p><p>This Carus bothered me so much that it now resides in another collection whose owner, I hope, can appreciate its many good points without dwelling on the part silvering that led me to dispose of the coin.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1196087[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>For the record:&nbsp; I can accept the removal of patchy silvering even though I do not do it with my coins BUT I can not accept the concept of adding silver to make the coins look like they did on the day they were made.&nbsp; Every so often you will see a coin with silver plating on top of corrosion lumps.&nbsp; That is a bad sign and I do not buy those.&nbsp; I say that but I wonder what I would do if I ran across a resilvered coin of a type I really, really wanted.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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