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 Replies: 14 / Views: 1,529 |
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Pillar of the Community
Germany
1852 Posts |
I am guessing like many of you, I too made my share of mistakes as a beginning collector of ancients coins many years ago. Besides outright fakes and tooled bronzes, I was also treated to puttied coins. I want to show you this particular example - a sestertius of Drusus, which was so cleverly puttied (at least to my eyes) that it completely fooled me. I was only made aware of the fact after I showed it in one of the german forums, and the members there spotted the putty right away. Sure enough, after placing the coin in acetone for about 30 minutes the putty dissolved and the pitting it was hiding became visible. Those guys spotted it right away, while I though it was only minor disruptions in the patina... It is a pity because it is an otherwise decent coin with a very nice portrait of Drusus. But see for yourselves. Here are the 'before' and 'after' pictures:     |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Here is my take. If you truley learned from something from buying fake and tooled bronze, then its worth its weight in gold.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3444 Posts |
Still a very decent Nero Claudius though !
The scars appear to be from BD and are a bit severe but overall the coin is still a nice example.
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
I can clearly see the spot on the reverse, but it is difficult to spot the others. Have not come across puttied coins before, so I've learn something new today.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1269 Posts |
I have never seen anything like this before. Thanks for posting this example.
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Valued Member
United States
129 Posts |
Thank you very much for posting this. Was there any other way to test for putty aside from a dip in acetone?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1699 Posts |
I knew this was a problem for US gold, but hadn't considered it for other coins. I would assume a very well done putty job done on an ancient would be very hard to detect by eyes alone.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4971 Posts |
i'll be darned, I would have never spotted that.
did it feel different? did they put on the clay then paint "patina" over the whole coin to cover it up?
interesting....thanks for sharing.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3444 Posts |
The 'cleaned' coin looks much better.
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Pillar of the Community
 Germany
1852 Posts |
I would say the putty was coloured to make it resemble the otherwise original dark green and brown patina of the coin. The repair was really deceiving, and the puttied areas look to me at least quite convincing.
I would say that it should be possible to detect putty or organic filler of some with non-destructive means, but it would involve elemental surface analysis.
Apparently the coin also looked convincing to the seller - a very experienced elderly collector/dealer who was, I believe, genuinely surprised when I showed him the results of the acetone dip. Who knows.
At any rate he was very forthcoming and flexible and replaced the coin with another of equal cost (a quadriga denarius of Octavian Augustus), and for a minimum amount allowed me to keep this one on top. So all was good and I think I came out well. It does not always end up this way.
Edited by GERMANICVS
06/06/2015 07:15 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3444 Posts |
I have seen these sort of bronze coins before. The soft look always puzzled me as they appeared to be genuine but had that same 'odd' look. Many people are rightly terrified by BD but coins are often salvageable. In this case the obvious intent was to deceive but I would be less offended if the 'putty' had been applied to the wound alone. Many beautiful antiquities have areas that have been restored in some way.
Putting new arms on the Venus de Milo would be offensive ! But putting a patch over scar isn't vandalism either. I think the technique would be okay as long as the repair work is not done to deceive.
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
129 Posts |
Bronze Disease
Edited by captainyesterday555
06/06/2015 3:18 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
Thank You...
I´m not very used to use acronims...
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New Member
United States
26 Posts |
Thanks for sharing this information. Always something new to watch out for. At least the putty job was really well done. It would have probably fooled a lot of us.
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Replies: 14 / Views: 1,529 |
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Posted 06/05/2015 11:45 am
