Just a question about this denarius

[MrZun]

So, so far It looks really good and Authentic, Weight is also good, design is great and has flow lines, Nice toning. But It has a grainy Surface, that is normal, right? Is It caused by dirt that was not cleaned?

Edited October 9 by MrZun

[Salomons Cat]

Looks definitely genuine to me, and I think that this denarius shows a beautiful portrait of Severus Alexander.

The surface also looks good to me, without any graininess. The reddish spots are just some deposits.

[-monolith-]

Porosity is common for these debased coins. It's genuine, it even has die rust which is very difficult to fake.  

[MrZun]

I Just won the Coin in a auction!

[Kali]

The coin is fine and many ancient coins have those kind of surfaces.

[CPK]

2 hours ago, MrZun said:

I Just won the Coin in a auction!

Congrats! It's a beauty!

[Octavius]

Definitely genuine and really nice portrait of Severus Alexander.

[Gallienus]

I think the graininess on the back is simply a characteristic of the metal.  Perhaps rust on the reverse die is my guess. Doesn't appear to be corrosion.  The obverse appears typical and the brown spots don't hurt anything.  Severus Alex was a decent emperor too: he restored the coinage which is why he made denarii and not debased or otherwise antoninanni.  

 

You could get one with better fields or a fully ms one, but you could also pay a lot more.

I've got a decent denarius of Elagalabus possibly w/ cleaner surfaces but it's not photographed.  

Edited Monday at 02:04 PM by Gallienus

[Salomons Cat]

I wonder why die rust is mentioned so often here, @-monolith- and @Gallienus. I don’t believe the ancient Romans used iron dies, so die rust seems unlikely. This has been discussed here. Also, I do not see porosity. The reverse is just from a slightly used die. But please correct me if I’m mistaken.

@MrZun: Congratulations! That’s a very attractive coin

[Gallienus]

20 hours ago, Salomons Cat said:

I wonder why die rust is mentioned so often here, @-monolith- and @Gallienus. I don’t believe the ancient Romans used iron dies, so die rust seems unlikely.

@MrZun

That's a good piece of info. I've just seen the term generally applied so I used it. It does appear that mint-issued dies in ancient times were bronze.

While it's still possible for bronze to corrode, I have another theory. Maybe these coins were originally cast planchlets and then put into a furnace to anneal & soften them. Then if some were insufficiently annealed, they'd have traces of the original porosity from the casting.  That's why you don't find the porosity on the high points.

It doesn't appear to be metal loss from the coin due to corrosion. 

[mr. wiggles]

Interesting thought.

Could it also be that this was struck from one of the last planchetes from a batch. It would have sat the longest on a furnace open to the air and the surface could have oxidized during this time. The surface roughness would then be due to light surface oxidation at the time it was struck which was then lost over time leaving the slightly rough surface behind. 

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Nice coin and congrats on the pick-up. I am 99.9% sure it's genuine.