Question About Ancients And Cleaning

Lots of patience and olive oil!

2-3 days at a time, then remove and brush with a toothbrush or agitate the dirt with a toothpick, rinse and repeat as long as necessary.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I have a follow-up question on your recommended cleaning process. I was wondering why electrolysis is considered a last resort (keep in mind I know nothing about what it is doing to the coin, chemically or mechanically)? The toothpick or toothbrush seems like a harsh cleaning but, then again, I am not an expert with these coins.

Other than coin #2 they look pretty cleaned. For these a soft toothbrush and some warm water with mild diswashing soap should remove what little dirt that's left. On coin #2 a soaking in either distilled water or olive oil will work very well. I prefer olive oil over distilled water, I've had much better result from using that.

I'm not a chemist but from what I have heard Penetrating oil has chemicals and acids that will remove the patina on a coin. While olive oil which is natural does not have those chemicals and will not remove the patina. It does however have a tendency to darken the patina.

Olive oil is only slightly acidic - other oils contain all sorts of crazy chemicals which mess about with the coin.

The slight acidity is what darkens the patina and is also what loosens the dirt, I am lead to believe.

Personally, my first coin was cleaned entirely using a steel sewing needle and it cam out alright. Takes a bit of practice and I recommend pre blunting some needles.

Oh - and I may do more, but I'm not nearly patient enough and I have ruined coins in the past with foolish actions...These things have sat underground 2000 years, they can sit in olive oil a few more.

The coins chesterb has shown are all 17th century Cobs.
These are not ancient coins, not even Medieval.
Their patina is unlikely to be delicate.

A soak for months in Olive Oil is fine if he is happy to wait that time.
If he would like to see more details some time this month, a clean with Lemon juice will not harm these, it did not "damage" mine.

It is not the same as Hydrochloric Acid or a synthetic cleaner.

In my case, this was purchased from Rasiel Suarez as an "uncleaned Byzantine trachy".
On cleaning it with Lemon juice, over a few days, it became apparent it was not Byzantine, but a Spanish Colonial Cob.
On sending the photo of it cleaned to Rasiel, he very kindly sent me a replacement, a real Trachy. Between the original purchase and receiving the replacement was less than two weeks (remember this is shipping to the UK)
He is great.

If I had plonked the coin into a jar of olive oil and put it away in a dark corner, I may well have forgotten about it.

These coins were never "High End" when issued, in my example it was overstruck a number of times.
Of course the real value is in their unique historical aspect, the colonial era of the Americas.

I recall over on another Forum, last June, a person asked if Lemon juice was suitable to use to clean coins, and all they got in reply was that "it is nice in cocktails".
I find that a lot of "Smoke & Mirrors" is given out by "experts" to beginners and such basic things as safe ways to clean coins seems to be deemed a "trade secret".

I stopped using Olive oil years ago to clean coins as I find it in itself can be corrosive, the oils seeping into the pores of the coin and continuine to corrode when the surface of the coin "seems clean of oil".

When I have sees Lots of AE Roman coins on ebay, that have obviously been cleaned by Olive Oil, I find it hard to make out the details. The coin is darkened and it seems the features get softened.

Also I find the way it darkens the tone of a coin to be irreversible, whilst when I had used Lemon juice to clean low grade AE Roman coins, after their initial "bright shine" they returned to their "original" tone after a week or so. In other words, the initial "bright" tone was "reversible".