hotwheelsearl

Deals to be had everywhere… would you believe I picked up Lucille’s, Crispina, and Marcus Aurelius for $30 each?? Granted, extremely sketchy seller with about 80% fakes, but wade through the eBay muck and eventually you’ll strike gold

I like seeing all the discussion about the reasonings, and how scientific folks want to get for diameter. There is no value in NOT stating an approximate diameter, there is only a gain. I guess I suppose one has to determine if they are willing to expend the extra few seconds to measure a coin, or not. I for one agree with several statements made above, where weight is not a very good metric for coin type. When weight standards were lax, when you have similar coins made of billon, or silver, or silver washed whatever, then the weights vary dramatically, but the diameter doesnt.

For me, I always have a ruler or other measuring device at hand but not always an accurate 0.01g scale. Also, consider how different a coin of, Xgrams can be depending on thickness. An Alexandrian tetradrachm is extremely thick but relatively small in diameter, while you have rather broad flans of low weight, so the weight in these cases does nothing but confuddle

Lol, so glad this thread has spurred so much lively debate. For what it's worth, i have a clear plastic ruler that i lay over top of my coins, this lets me move it around until i find the dimensions that look right.

Auction houses be guilty too. https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=2518&lot=1051 This medallion is 6.08g, but...how big? I can try to estimate diameter based on density of relatively pure silver, but why can't they just tell me how big it is. This is such a pet peeve that drives me absolutely batty.

I am not trying to call anybody out, but I have noticed an odd trend where some collectors of what I could consider the more "advanced" variety tend never to list the diameter of their coins. They will post a picture, have a slew of information, and then just the weight. Considering that the composition of coins varied hugely, saying that a coin is "4.3g" means almost nothing. I want diameters, gosh dern it. Oddly enough, those of the more "amateur" variety tend to list weight AND diameter. Why?

For mail call today, I was surprised to see a large envelope postmarked 22NOV, which just arrived. Almost a month in transit for Priority Mail, but it DID have to go all the way to the Gulf of Aden... Internet is pretty awful here, so not sure when I'll be able to post pictures. However, my very generous benefactor, krispupsis, sent me a gorgeous heavy siliqua of Constantius II! He evidently felt bad for my poor, thin, bent, and cracked siliqua that I had posted some time ago (kudos for researching my post history!) As opposed to normal siliquae which were around the 18mm mark, this one is a whopping 21mm, huge and hefty. This example exhibits a lovely gunmetal-gray color with some slight iridescent edge toning. A beautiful coin, and greatly appreciated!

Huh, what strikes you as fake on this? I don't like the patina myself, it looks a little too "applied"

Great advice! I did the plastic container version, but didn't put any egg on top. I did this on a Philippine peso, it started out with some beautiful blue fringe tone, but then got dark and ugly pretty shortly thereafter. Probably because I didn't clean the surfaces first. The egg tasted good though

Nice! I am very curious how your tone will evolve over time. In my experience, my egg toners tend to turn much darker and much uglier in just a few days or weeks.

This looks very blue in hand, trust me! Unusual for sestertii to get this blue, typically I feel like they go any color but blue.

I've gotten results that sort of look like an oil slick - blue, yellow, orangish. The longer I leave a coin in, the more blue it gets, until eventually it just goes black. (pls keep in mind I haven't ever defrauded anybody with a fake tone, I just think it's fun to do on harshly cleaned modern coins or trashy ancients that will never get sold)

Not that it matters, but how does that impact any pension??

Donna, I've gotten very similar results with egg toning - hard boil an egg, mash it up, seal it in a tupperware with a silver coin. a few minutes later, a "beautiful" artificial patina forms! It's a great way to obscure surface cleaning marks or defects...

Every time I see this type, I am reminded of the absolute travesty of Mussolini's bulldozing of the Meta Sudans. 2,000 years later, it was the only surviving Roman functional Roman fountain. It was in a high state of preservation, still quite tall, and still "sweated" water as it did when it was built. To widen a road, our boy decided that it was only reasonable to knock that fountain down, and there is now nothing left but a plaque.