Alexandria – Tiberius? 22mm, 9.25g Recently I've been cleaning a group of heavily corroded Alexandrian coins that I got as a lot. They're not a hoard or anything, just accumulated culls or near culls from a dealer. I've actually had some success cleaning some of these, and I will share some of those gems later. I had high hopes for this one since I could see a bit of the obverse bust through heavy corrosion, but after removing some of that – hard, thick stuff – with citric acid, I found the surface underneath to be heavily scratched on both sides. The reverse seems to have been rubbed bare. If I'd first seen the coin in this condition, I'd guess it'd been harshly clean, but it seems that this damage must have occurred in antiquity: the scratches were beneath the layers of corrosion. I think that if you look closely you can see that some of the scratches run beneath some of the remaining corrosion. The low relief of the field between the obverse inscription and the ruler's bust (Tiberius, I suspect) has been spared because of its low relief. Any guesses as to what happened to this coin, or anything similar that you've seen? It's like an ancient parking lot penny that's been run over by the wagons a few too many times, or maybe just the result of a bored someone's scratching.
Yeah, it looks like it was done in antiquity, but why? not sure. Doesn't look like a game piece either.
I would be game on with done in antiquity. The other half of me says that the offender of the coin was having a bad day,
Is it possible that this coin was 'corroded' and then 'cleaned' (in antiquity) gathering the scratches at THAT time, only to be considered 'not worth it' and discarded, only to become corroded for the second time, and for the second time (semi) cleaned exposing the (crude) attempts at 'cleaning' the first time around?
Someone must of really hated Tiberius and didn't care about the Obv/Rev and scratched everything up. I guess as long as they could feel the weight of the bronze it was enough to determine value.