Coins I Am Trying To Clean Up.

Hmm, this lot shows some potential. Although I am not sure how the silvering will affect the process, I might recommend some hydrogen peroxide. As my thread of the past week or so has shown, that stuff can help to loosen some dirt rather quickly.

I would let them soak in olive oil for a while.

I thought that this guy lost his face! turned out he didnt, time to soak him for a bit.

hmm, might you even try carefully chiseling some of that stuff off with a needle? These coins really have some serious encrustation. Did you acquire these from an uncleaned lot? Do you know where they were found?

this one I didnt think much of and its turning out better then the rest. I think this one might be the winner in a couple more months. It was all green and you couldnt make out anything in the reverse and now you can see some silvering and the reverse is very detailed. What would you attribute this coin as? 4 horses and a chariot, a Probus SOLI INVICTO ( 276-282) A.D.NICE!

Jessvc1:

Poor old Aurelian! I think the chemical pitting mechanism in front of his face has been at it for too long. If you remove that rough pitted bumpy area in front of his face, I feel that it will reveal a rough pitted bumpy area underneath.

I have a very nice large Aurelian bronze of about 20 mm dia., with a good VF reverse AND obverse and mostly silvered, but with a horrid corroded area, just like this one. I have often asked myself 'What can I do with this?' I have thought about tooling the rough area flat, but 'for what?' Mine came out of a dealer's junk box for $10. Probably a $100 coin without the problem.

A high speed dentist's drill with a flat disk sander 1mm dia. would be the tool to use. Something up to 5,000 RPM.
The air drill would be no good - way too fast (60,000 RPM) and may generate too much heat. I have even thought even using my Neighbourhood Watch engraving tool, but I don't have the skill, and I don't have a flat sanding disk for it.

It is possible that the rough pitted area may have penetrated to almost to the full thickness of the coin in this area. I have seen that before. That would make controlled tooling in this area difficult, because the corroded area would be much softer than the metal surrounding it.

Tooling the coin in this area may help, but the work would be very obvious, and certainly would not add to the value of the coin. Besides, copper compounds in the form of a gritty substance may come off only, and even may scavenge out the whole pitted area in an uncontrolled manner, making the coin only worse.

Tooled coins always bring less value at auction. I would only do that by way of experiment, and only if you are prepared to risk writing the coin off. The only profit from that exercise is the knowledge you may gain by attempting to do so.