Hadrian Bronze 25-27mm

[Jschulze]

Hi all, this was to go in the authentication thread but I had a few other questions besides that so I figured I'd post it here for a bit wider discussion. I hope that's ok.

So first, maybe unlikely that someone would fake something beat up like this but... A few things made me wonder. 1.) although theres still some detail on the reverse, the relief is oddly low. 2.) the bare metal on the scratched up part is much more "yellow" than most of the bronze coins I have. However, the edges look good under magnification, the coin looks struck and it "feels" right... whatever that means. Authentic?

Second question: Around the beginning and end of the reverse legend, there are slight depressions around some of the letters. Is this always a sign of tooling or does this effect occur naturally in some cases?

Third question: As you can see this one has some major scratches with bare metal showing through. The coin would be a lot more attractive if some of that metal was closer to the tone of the remaining patina. I've never "toned" anything. Do you recommend it or just leave it alone? If so is there a household way of doing this?

Thanks, I hope I didn't over do it with the questions.

Josh

IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANVS AVG, laureate bust right / PONT MAX TR POT COS DES III S-C, ANNONA AVG in ex, Annona standing left with grain ears & cornucopiae; modius left, prow right. Cohen 180 RIC II 560b
25-27mm, axis: 6, no weight available

[areich]

I don't see a reason to think it's fake, it has just been abused. I'd leave the worn points to tone naturally.

[Jschulze]

Thanks Areich! I appreciate you taking time to look and reply. I think I'll let it darken up on its own as you suggest. It's just hard not to think about tinkering with it when a more uniform color would distract less.

To quickly follow up, there are some slight depressions around some of the reverse letters (around PONT and DES III). Just to educate myself a bit more overall, I was curious if this effect can happen organically (from the original strike) or if this is always a sign of someone trying to bring out the letters a bit more? There seems to be untouched green/red patina in those depressions so it looks old but I was curious.

Thanks all again for your time!

Josh

[SC]

Those depressions around the letters are not a sign of a fake.  But I have still yet to read a good explanation of why they exist.  Striking a sestertius required an awful lot of pressure.  I suspect that the depressions are some sort of deformity caused by the metal flow into the letters carved into the die and were not on the die itself.  But I have not heard confirmation of this theory.

Your coin has pitting caused by corrosion, likely bronze disease.  The repair of that - some sort of chemical soak - has revealed bare metal.  Sestertii like this were not made of bronze, but instead of the more yellowish metal called orichalcum, which is an alloy of copper and zinc similar to modern brass.

Shawn