Constantine II Campgate

I've been on this site many times and am just now seeing the rarity ratings on the right. Sometimes I surprise myself at how dumb I can be. Thanks for pointing that out to me and before anyone can say anything about the ratings, I understand what they are and what they are not. This coin does show as R5.

Again, thanks

JW

And you would be absolutely correct in your assessment. It is a beautiful coin that plugs a hole in my collection. As for the footnotes, they are interesting as is the R5 rating. But for me its all about the coin.

Thanks for the information Doug. Between you and Bobbyhelmet I learn something new everyday.

JW

Real nice coin jw. I still need to add a campgate to my collection...

Now you know what made me buy this coin in the first place. I'm a patina freak as we've discussed in other threads. And sand patina has an allure that the others do not. Thanks for the comments. It helps me to justify the purchase and makes be think I made a wise decision.

JW

Sand patina or dirt. An age old question. I have seen coins from Europe with what is described as "sand patina", but this is only compacted dirt with the light coloring of sand.

In actuality, sand patina is not really patina at all either, but a layer of dirt or sand. Depending on what kind of dirt, it takes on different colors like Syrian red (highly sought after). Coins from middle east desert areas sometimes have this "patina". The sand on these coins is very dense and made up of extremely fine particles (different from their European cousins where the dirt is much less dense nor so fine).

Some coins look better with this "patina" in the fields making a nice contrast. Like my coin, this is called "desert patina".

JW

This image is dark, but from what I see, yes to your question. The Syrian Red coloration is connected to the ground where the coin/coins have been found. Basically the patina is a protection created by nature. In the case of this coin, I would surmise it was found buried somewhere (Syria?) where the sand takes on the color or tint of red. When I've been to the Middle East, I've seen areas where the landscape has a reddish hue.

There are three types of Patinas. The first is genuine patina created when there is interaction of the metal of the coin with the surrounding elements changing the coin's color. These are the strong brown, green, or brownish green hard outer shells we see so often in Ancients. It is truly a shame to zap this patina off a coin. In my estimation, this patina not only adds to the overall appearance, but adds to the value of any coin.

The second patina is "sand patina" which is sand that gets stuck to the coin after going through hundreds and thousands of years of seasonal changes that carry with it the heat, the cold, and the humidity. With all these changes and with time the sand around the coin stick to the coin like crazy glue and is quite difficult to remove. Sand patina comes usually in two colors: ordinary sand color like the one I posted and the red sand color that resembles the soil found in your garden like the one Bobbyhelmet posted. The red patina, as I said earlier, is highly sought after for some reason. Perhaps because of it's rarity, but I don't know for sure.

And the third patina is the fake patina created by chemicals like acids. I have no idea how this process works, nor how to go about making a fake patina. I've read that in some places they feed these coins to goats and then "harvest" the coins (yuk). The acid from the stomach of the goat interacts with the metal of the coin to create a fake patina. I don't know how this works since I have not owned a goat for some time now. I would suppose a chemist could tell us the particulars, but not me.

I hope all this helps a little. If someone else can chime in to make it clearer, be my guest.

Regards,

JW

Eww lol.... This is a longshot I know, but just wondering: does anyone here have an ancient that they know for sure has gone through a goat's gut? lol definitely want to see a pic of one.