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 Replies: 12 / Views: 1,958 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
579 Posts |
Hey Everyone, Since I am going to be doing a fair amount of coin cleaning over the course of the year I decided to create one comprehensive thread to post the pictures of my coins, ask for advice, etc. I welcome other people to use this thread as well to post their coins and hopefully we can come away with a good collection of knowledge for coin cleaning to help out newbies like me. I have a couple new coins on the way but here is an update on the 10 I received from dirtyoldcoins. I only took pictures of 8 of the 10 since the other two appear to be culls.   The top left has started to show some detail after soaking and light brushing and some letters appeared on the top right. The bottom left has that tough encrustation at the back of his neck that will probably take some heavy soaking to loosen up and as you can see the bottom right is still a present to be opened but a slight outline of a face is starting to show up.   For this grouping the top left is looking really good on the obverse and I am not sure if I should pull that one out of the water. As for the top right and bottom left you can see they both will need some extra time in the DW. The bottom right I am thinking it just needs a little bit more work on the obverse around the letter since the reverse looking fairly good. Let me know your thoughts and give some tips if you can! Also for the other coin cleaners I would love to see your current projects so post some pics of the coins. Hopefully we can get an awesome thread going. -Whiz |
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Good idea. I perfer soaking coins in olive oil and than using dental picks and brushes to remove the dirt.
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
579 Posts |
Yeah my next batch I am going to be doing half in olive oil and half in DW just to compare the results. I don't quite trust myself with dental picks just yet I have been practicing a bit with toothpicks but most of it has just been brushing and soaking.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2624 Posts |
I will keep an eye on this thread... I find this stuff interesting...
My problem with it is buying, I bought 2 batches of 10 coins of e-bay from a recommended seller (one of the guys here) and though it looked good on first impression only 1 of the Greek 10 showed any decent details and it turned out to be an over-cleaned coin which had been re-caked in dirt.
Of the Romans none were in a collectable condition, I just threw all these coins into a bag of junk change.
Really for me I think I am unlikely to profit from further effort and better to bite the bullet and just buy pre-cleaned coins I like.
I wish everyone who tries this luck though, and I hope you all receive decent coins underneath a thick layer of dirt :P
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
805 Posts |
I have been getting a little frustrated with a batch of 50 coins that I bought. Distilled water for over a week was really doing nothing with a lot of the coins. Started using olive oil without much luck, either. Recently, I tried a small batch of the badly encrusted coins in straight lemon juice for about an hour. What a difference that made. The heavy encrustations were coming off quickly with brushing. I am continuing to soak for longer periods, but with DW mixed with the lemon juice. The patina still looks good. I am using picks to flake off some of the loose encrustations and to "scrape" lightly across the embedded dirt after soaking.
I haven't taken before and after but next time, I think I will.
Thanks for starting the thread.
Edited by steve123
02/16/2013 10:42 pm
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
The thing about cleaning coins either using distilled water or olive oil is that the process takes a long time. Lightly encrusted coins may only need a few weeks but usually it takes months and could take up to a year.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
579 Posts |
@DavidUK I understand what you mean I chose to clean coins mainly because I needed to start somewhere and won't have the funds to seriously consider purchasing single coins for at least five years (Student loans). The way I see it now I can buy 10 or so coins for 2 bucks a pop and get to familiarize myself with Roman Coinage do my research and once I am able to start making more significant purchases have a good background to stand on. Plus this keeps me at the house and not running around the city spending more money. It is the same reason I CRH there is low risk with the potential for reward. While I expect to find some duds amongst my lots I am very selective with what I have purchased so far my only big expenditure was my first lot because I wanted to get some source material behind it. I am excited for my next ten because if they look anything like the picture I should have some neat coins on their way. Cheaper lots will also let me experiment with different cleaning methods and techniques so I can explain to people and potentially get them into Ancient History as well.
@steve I can't wait to see your coins and hope they turn out. From what I have seen it is a little frowned upon to use lemon juice on the bronze coins since it may damage the patina but I may single out a couple of coins in the future to try it out. Be sure to post pictures of this lot! Also what ratio are you using for your lemon juice and DW?
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
805 Posts |
Whiz: I only use the lemon juice juice on the badly encrusted coins. I give them about an hour in 100% juice and then clean them. This helps to really loosen up the crud. Then if they are still caked (no surface of coin showing), I return them again. For extremly stubborn ones, I will soak overnight. Then I am moving to 100% DW or about 95% DW and 10% Lemon Juice. This is my first time trying it, so I am hoping for good results. This was a cheap lot and I have TONS of learning to do! There are a couple that had extremely bad tarry caking on them that I had left in the LJ with surfaces of the coin showing. We'll see how they turn out.
Edited by steve123
02/18/2013 10:33 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2596 Posts |
https://goccf.com/t/119051 the best way to get a nice coin is to start out with some that might be in better condidion. I usually go to vcoins and look for higher grade coins with some encrustaion on them and start from there. I've had some good results buying from metal detectors too
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
805 Posts |
Oops....do not leave in lemon oil overnight if any of the patina is showing. I'm glad they weren't great coins. Around the edges, and where the encrustations were thin, some of the metal is showing. Now to decide what to do with them. Return to DW and leave some of the patina on or remove it all. I remember reading somewhere that "you WILL ruin some coins"  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4962 Posts |
some promsing coins there WB.
oh no steve...that happens, I just scratched one the other day....i think that sort of thing is just going to happen.
i'd stick with the distilled water, that's what I primarily use (I've got some bad one soaking in olive oil, I won't even look at them till they've soaked a couple months).
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
579 Posts |
Steve that is unfortunate for your coins! But hey the whole point of trying new things is to learn their effect.
Thanks chrs! I have 12 more coins on the way from two different sources 2 from one and 10 from the other. Ordered them a week and a half ago but shipping from anywhere out of country is incredibly slow especially with this most recent long weekend plus customs wait time. I am hoping they come tomorrow because I don't know if I can wait another weekend!
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
579 Posts |
Couple more coins arrived today. I grabbed a couple of 'easy cleaners' to practice with IDs. I got these ones from Romae Aeternae Numismatics. I had actually only ordered two but Ed mixed up my order and another and accidentally sent me four coins. I felt bad so I paid for the other two anyways. Have another lot coming this week hopefully.   The bottom right doesn't look like it needs much cleaning at all and I am scared if I start to clean it to highlight some of the letters I might mess up the obverse. Right now the patina highlights the strands of hair and is absolutely gorgeous. I was hoping for some desert type patinas and I got them! The top two could use some light cleaning I think to highlight all of the letters and the figure and on the bottom left I am unsure for some light cleaning or not. As always I would love to see some of the coins you are working on. |
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Replies: 12 / Views: 1,958 |
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Posted 02/16/2013 1:23 pm
