Should I Break Out The Roman Silver ?

So far "NO" is prevailing!

I think if your collection is like mine 99% of your coins are not slabbed.I have a few slabbed coins which I will leave that way since it cost about 30 dollars each coin to slab. So I vote to leave it slabbed.

How about when combined with opinions over at CoinTalk?

You can always do it mañana.

I am tempted to put that in my signature.


Here is a reshoot of my Kanishka didrachm, because I know how much like high grade Kushan coins...

Beautiful Kushan, Nate. I love it. Thanks for posting.

indeed...that kushan coin is sweet. nice new pic!

The coin itself is not a silver 'wash' type coin but in fact made of good silver. The silver wash types had become standard since the time of Aurelian. The economic problems and wild inflation of the late third century had led to the virtual disappearance of silver from the coinage in circulation. Periodic attempts to reintroduce silver coin were futile. People would not use them but kept them rat holed away. The "billon" coinage had fallen to around 5% silver and the silver wash served to remind people that these AE's were about as good as it was going to get ! The silver wash came in varying degrees of thickness but would not have measured thicker than a few microns. The technique used is uncertain but probably involved heating and 'pickeling' the coins to cause the silver to leech out and form a new surface coating.

Smoothing involves taking a small implement shaped like a shoe horn or a spoon and using the curved face to rub the rough surfaces and create an even surface. It is a form of polishing and better suited to making jewelry than coin conservation.