Wow! For those of you newbies like me....go back and read my post of...November 24 or thereabouts of last year. My ears turned
red just now.
What a bunch of overblown hooey I spouted! Clean 'em all!....I said in my ignorance.
If you are new to something which has been going on for literally centuries, meaning ancient coin collecting, go with the experts and those experienced in the
field.
In the interim I have learned or acquired something I suspect is true about stripping
patina off coins, that we newbies so like to do.
I think some of what the desire to strip coins
comes from is ...let me see...If I can articulate this correctly. A collector wants to know what a coin's
attribution is. He/She assumes that removing encrustations which we newbies in the beginning of collecting includes
patina, will
help in
attribution, and though we don't dare say it, increase the value of that "
rare" coin you've found or think you've found. Nope.
I have a pretty nice though worn
Trajan with the famous Danube bridge reverese. Big, thick heavy 33mm
Sestertius. You see them sold for muyo
money on various sales venues. Well, mine looks at first glance like pure gold-that's how cleaned it is. I didn't do it. I bought it that way. It's worth-whatever someone is willing to pay. Meaning not much since it's as shiny as a new trumpet. Yes, it's original, and yes, there are sufficient details showing to make it worth a little to someone who just "wants to own a
roman coin" but now that it's cleaned like that, it's a curiousity, nothing more. With the original
patina, which I feel sure was a nice green, it would be both displayable and sellable. Not now, however.
I think one factor that I haven't seen mentioned is the illusion that
patina is covering up details that are in fact simple wear. A worn coin looks much like the detail has been smoothed over or covered with "something". Often that something which is
patina, gets removed in the quest for more detail.
The details you do not see are gone.
Face it. Gone. They wore away 1800 or 1900 years ago and are simply not there or corrosion has removed them. They can't be put back.
Yes, you can "tool" a coin by using modern engraving instruments to bring out lost detail, but why not just add your initials while you are at it? It's not an original coin anymore.
Patina comes from the original material of the coin and to use a metaphor is like the wrinkles an aged
face has. The wrinkes got there honestly by simply surviving over time. A 50 year old actor who has
had extensive plastic surgery does not fool movie agents get parts suited for a 25 year old actor-tho like newbies like me some try.
A "face-lifted" coin doesn't become a
Very Fine specimen just because the oxidation of the ages has been removed.