Jumping On The Bandwagon!

Coin #1 is:

Valens AE3. 364-367 AD. Alexandria mint. DN VALEN-S PF AVG, pearl diademed, draped, cuirassed bust right / GLORIA RO-MANORVM, emperor advancing right, holding labarum and dragging captive behind him. ALEB in ex.

Thanks for the ID of the first coin JW :)

Thank for the advice Ben, I was thinking distilled water would be slower and softer than the oil but you advise I should treat all coins with olive oil?

I heard ones with sandy patina's it was best not to use oil since you lose that colouring... I am not sure if any of mine qualify.

Also what about coin number 5... it has turquoise (mineral deposits?) and bright orange (corrosion?) how best to deal with that kind?

d.uk, I think number 5 may be a good olive oil candidate maybe 7 also? most look like distilled water may do the trick.

i like number 3, I've been looking for of the coins with 3 standards on the reverse.

keep us posted!

The greeks...

Well I thought I would have a look at my Greek coins before going to bed and so I pulled them out of their water and gave a little toothbrush to them.

With the water almost dried I could make out some details on some of the coins...and wow what a pleasant surprie to see the head of Herakles staring back at me...as the water dried he became less obvious... but I think I have a club/bow case reverse coin of a good size and maybe underneath that muck a good grade too.





Herakles is facing to the right but its hard to make out, with coin in hand and bright lights on it I thought I might have glimpsed silver, I will try not to get my hopes up because its too early to tell and much more likely to be bronze...but I have seen silver drachms with club/bow reverse this might be too large...did they make tetradrachms with that reverse too I wonder?

The reverse I can just make out the POY of ALEXANDROY...

And Steve I saw what you said chicken!

On his right is a captive seated looking up. I believe I see enough letters on the obverse to suggest Licinius I.

That looks to be the one Doug! So full attribution should be like this?

Licinius I
Ae nummus (12,5 denarii)
Mint : Nicomedia
Struck : 321-324 AD ?
Obverse : Licinius facing right IMPCVALLICLICINIVSPFAVG
Reverse:IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG. Jupiter standing left, holding Victory on globe and sceptre, agle with wreath in its beak left. SNNA in ex..



Related to this thread I think that was my last lot of uncleaned ancients...it turns out that the Alexander coin was a cleaned coin made to look uncleaned again and was bereft of any patina underneath the dirt. I will jut stick to Vcoins in future.