Silver Denarius found today at rally

[Mark]

I'm no Roman coin expert, in fact, after 10 years detecting I'm still to find my first denari, but to me this coin looks genuine, ie, silver, as I have found a few silver coins that have the exact same rust colour staining/patina on them, including a King John penny. In fact, if you look closely, you can see some of the silver on the high parts of the obverse. 

[Chef Geoff]

I seriously think the best way to end this speculation is to just wet the coin and wrap it in silver foil for 30 secs, if it's silver with that amount of oxide then it will smell strongly of eggs, if not then it will have no effect whatsoever. job done.

[nobby]

get some
 nitric acid on it!!!

[philthedig]

get some
 nitric acid on it!!!

Just try not to breathe whilst doing so!

[Napoleon]

Wayno thats a cracking coin and  wish more to come , a bientot my friend .

Napoleon

[dances with badgers]

 ;Dnice one wayno.getting my etrac tomorrow ,might have to hit you up for some tips bud.seems a bit daunting bud

[StumbledUpon]

Looks rust stained to me. Lovely find, well done.

[JohnF]

Thats a lovely coin! Ive absolutely no doubt that it is silver. Some of you may remember the hoard of denarii i found a couple of years back. many of the coins in the hoard had the same dark staining as yours and i had my doubts wether many of them were contempory forgeries or silver washed, one of them in particular i would have bet my mortgage that it was a bronze core from a silver washed forgery ( see before & after pic bottom), but after cleaning they all turned out to be genuine denarii.

[Al.Thepastfinder, ( Alan )]

iv'e had a couple of republicans the same colour that i didn't think were  silver at first, but they were made from base metals & silver,

[wayno]

Hello all

thanks for all the interest and advise on my coin. Lots of good info. I have sent pics to the british museum as suggested but he is away until 9 nov.

I John F how did you clean that coin.

and another question for you all should i attept to clean it

thanks again

Wayne

[Chef Geoff]

Wayno, as I said before just wet the coin and fold some cooking foil around it tightly leave it for 30 secs, unfold the foil and if you can smell rotten eggs then its silver and you will see some silver starting to show through. If you can't smell anything then it's a copper alloy.



Just copied from another forum, Thanks jkxz

Here's one that you probably heard some old git tell you at the local club ... And thought , silly old git !!! LooOOL   Me too - Simply the aluminum kitchen foil & spit technique ... wet the coin well with saliva ... yuck !!! then place into a small piece of foil & enclose it - like a coin sandwich ... firmly rub with thumb & finger evenly on both surfaces .... The coin should start to heat up !! & smell of rotten eggs if its silver !!!   After 30 seconds or so its time to have a look. Wipe well with soft tissue, then add some sunflower cooking oil to the coin ... now rub very gently between finger & thumb - looking all the time to make sure raised points do not get over clean, now wipe clean the coin again with soft tissue - Job done !!!  
  

[wayno]

NO EFFECT SO THAT MEANS IT NOT SILVER THEN ?

SO NEXT QUESTION IS THEN IS IT A FORGE

THANKS

WAYNE

[Chef Geoff]

Not necessarily wayno, as I said before bronzes depicting her portrait are quite rare but as it is exactly the same as a Denarius and would be easy to cover in silver (dip) and turn in to a denarius so I would suspect thats what it is. However that doesn't or needn't detract from it's value.
It's still nearly 2000 years old and has a far more interesting story behind it.

[The Doc]

Wayne - see my previous post for the three possibilities.

The foil test may not be conclusive if the iron staining prevents the foil coming into contact with any silver sulphide on the surface of the coin.

[wayno]

I cant get over the condition of it  if it is a copper alloy base or bronze to be in the earth for 1000 year+ and to come up in ths condition.

look at all the early george pennies there is berely nothing on them.

so what ever it is i am very pleased with it

thanks again

wayne