PATINA

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) In Numismatics, the fine rust with which coins become covered by lying in peculiar soils, which, like varnish, is at once preservative and ornamental. It is, says Mr. Piukerton, a natural varnish, not Unliable by any etfort of human art; sometime* ite blue, like that of a turquoise; sometimes of ■ bronze brown, equal to that observable In ancient statues of bronze; sometimes of an exquisite green, a little on the azure hue, which last is the most beautiful of all. It is also found of • tine purple, of olive, and of a cream colour, or pale yellow, which last is exquisite. The Neapolitan patina Is of a tight green; and, when, free from en or blemish, is very beautiful. Sometimes the purple patina gleams through an upper coat of anothor colour, with as line efl'ect as a variegated silk or gem. In a few instances a rust of deeper green is found, and it is sometimes ■potted with the red or bronze shade, which gives it the ire of the East Indian stone called bloodstone. These rusts are all, when the real product of time, as hard as the metal Itself, and preserve it much better than any artificial varnish could have done; concealing, at the same time, not the most minute particle of the impre ion of the coin. Gold admits no ru^t but iron-mould, when lying in a soil Impregnated with iron. Silver takes many kinds, but chiefly green and red, which yield to vinegar; for in this metal the riht is prejudicial. I' \ TOI8. (Supposed to be derived from Lat. pater, a father.) A word in general use in most European counpiifying the dialect peculiar to the lower cla es. PATRES CON8CRIPTI. See Conscript Fathers. • [s. 921]