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 Replies: 17 / Views: 7,184 |
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Valued Member
Canada
88 Posts |
I bought a "boatload" of uncleaned coins on ebay a few weeks ago. They arrived a few days ago and there were very few coins that had any discernable information on them (wasn't overly concerned). However, after a one day soak in distilled water most coins looked like the one pictured here. I found it a bit strange that the coins would clean up so fast and most of them would have this characteristics. Hopefully, someone will tell me that this is just patina and not bronze disease!  |
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
There does appear to be some DB.
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Valued Member
 Canada
88 Posts |
Here are two more examples. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.   |
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Valued Member
Canada
88 Posts |
Just to add some more details more than 50% of the coins look like this.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
The last one isn't BD - that looks like patina. check by scraping the coin with your finger nail - if a fine, deep green powder comes off you've got BD. I had a coin which was BD the whole way through. ALL the way. At that point the coin flaked like a hardened sponge.
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Valued Member
Canada
88 Posts |
I brushed each of the coins and a very fine green dust came off of all of them.
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Valued Member
Canada
88 Posts |
I brushed each of the coins and a very fine green dust came off of all of them.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
E-gads! The whole lot? Contact the seller - those all have BD and arent worth diddly squat with BD (the cure will take all the green off and there probably wont be much coin underneath).
Im sure you know how to treat it all but make sure to replace the water pretty often or you'll just be spreading it evenly across the coins.
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Valued Member
Canada
88 Posts |
I should clarify- about 50% of the coins are like this.
I have quarantined them from the other coins!!
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Hatter - at least you've got half of them then.
I reckon you should contact the seller - if not to get some compensation then to warn them.
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Valued Member
Canada
88 Posts |
I probably should let them know about the coins- but I don't want to come across as someone who wants something for nothing (which happened to me once on ebay). |
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
I agree the last one is a nice green patina. Those other coins must have been a wet area cause they to become saturated with moisture. You can stop the BD from spreading by placing the coin is a 250 degree oven for about 20 minutes and than placing them in an airtight area such as under a jar to cool.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Soaking in distilled water will pull certain things out of the coins that under normal conditions could not have been seen and could also have been relatively inactive.
Both of the coins in your second two pictures are fine and its a light green dusty deposit your looking for, most of the time.
The top coin may, once out of the water not be actively reacting, don't panic just yet or start firing emails off, scrub and dry a few of the coins you think have it and leave them out somewhere for a week or so. You may find that the green death does not return.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
946 Posts |
Coin #1 might be a case of a layer of corrosion, rather than deep ingrained Bronze Disease. Below are photos of a Byzantine Follis of Justinian I bought last year and cleaned. The first photo shows it before cleaning. The second after a soak in citric acid, the surface "turned green". The third is after cleaning it all off with a Cotton Bud (Q-Tip). The fourth is after applying wax to the surfaces.     Edited by Masis
02/13/2013 8:01 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4973 Posts |
the last one (kind of blueish) looks ok...and kind of pretty really.
as stated by others, isolate and give a distilled water soak, scrape of what you can, bake 'em, then wax 'em.
nice cleaning job my the masis!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
567 Posts |
What concentration citric acid did you use?
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Replies: 17 / Views: 7,184 |
Posted 02/13/2013 6:15 pm
