Constans II Or Is It?

Thanks Bob. I realize these are not the best looking series, but as I have said in the past the Byzantines had an interesting and colorful history that has been overlooked by most collectors.

The letters NEOS are and abbreviation of the word Ananeosis- Renewal. Constans renewed the theme of Constantines I command that he received in a dream "In This Sign"

Chris I'll be glad to look at you coin, whatever I can do to help.

Ron, I'm not sure if you're asking me whether I think the sand patina is "too much" with regard to its aesthetic appeal - in which case the answer is definitely "no" since it helps define the devices...it looks nice. Or whether you're asking if I think it's artificially applied, in which case I can't tell.

However, if you meant the latter, here's a suggestion: go to the most popular online forum for buying coins, where dealers adhere to a code of ethics. Click on the "ancient coins" box there, and then click on "48 hours" to bring up the last two days of ancient coins that have been uploaded. About four pages of coins will come up. Scan through all of them. You'll see one dealer's bronze coins all come up with supposed desert patinas: these include, over the four pages, his Romans, Islamics, Greeks, Judaeans. This happens day after day, week after week...he does this with nearly every dark AE that he lists. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, if you purchased from him I'd say that yes, it's probably an applied patina. Otherwise there's just no way to tell that I know of.

Having said that, however...I once ran a small Elymaean by Mike Godier of ECIN. Mike has a really extensive knowledge about ancients, of course, and he's a good guy. I asked him if he thought the patina was fake (applied) - in this case it was a greenish, sort of grainy, patina. He actually brought the coin up to his nose to sniff it. I sure wasn't expecting that. And then he said he thought that, yes, it had an artificially applied patina. I guess maybe he got a whiff of whatever adhesive material was used for the application(?). Blew me away. Now there's a guy who knows his ancients.

When you get the name of the store, then go his store page and click on "New Items"...I think you'll see what I mean.

By the way, sorry to be so coy. I just don't want to name names...especially given how widespread this practice is. I'm not even condemning the practice - though I could, of course (esp. in light of the code of ethics) - but rather the excessiveness of it in this case.