Question About Ancients And Cleaning

Hello Dave

I cannot say unless I had the coin in hand to give a proper assessment.
Certainly Lemon juice is not going to turn the coin into dust or goop, from what you state, if the bronze shows under the grime, perhaps this helps.

If the soak in Distilled water did not reveal the bronze as the Lemon juice did, then this seems a better way.
Go easy, short soak, then gentle with a Cotton-Bud (Q-Tip).
Again, not seeing the actual coin, this is all I can recommend at the moment.




Of course, if the coins patina is flakey, it best to leave it well alone, any acidic clean, olive oil or citric, will strip all that flakey patina off to leave a "shiny slug", which we often see such "casualties" for sale on ebay as well.

If a coin is legible, there is no need at all to clean it.
Seems obvious, but perhaps needs to be stated.

But if it has crud on it, it cannot "loose its true patina" since it never had the crud on it when it was struck thousands of years ago in the Mint.

Here you go Chesterb...

Coin 1... cleaned in lemon juice. Took just under 2 minutes total, that includes taking it out and giving it the toothbrush every 10 seconds...





and coin 2... cleaned in olive oil, Took 2 weeks....





The difference is obvious. Now you just choose which result you want! On a side note, can someone tell me what that is on coin number 1?

Both coins where from the same dig, same day, same soil & are both the same material. Both covered in loads of 'crud'

Hope this helps you buddy.

Yeah, I figured it would be case by case use of lemon juice. I will probably experiment with some slugs more later. Last time I used juice and toothbrush I will have to test out the QTip thanks for the tip.

There is one coin I have that I believe is a candidate for olive oil for two reasons. There is a section of crud that just isn't moving after a month in distilled water and it is a very bright patina that isn't very attractive. I think a slight darkening would really make the bust pop out.

I am still learning everything but it is getting easier in some aspects. I move in 2 weeks to a new apartment. That is when the real fun begins.

MetDet - that looks provincial! A Great coin.Looks almost like a pineapple, but its probably a basket. We would need the other side to ID it.

First thoughts were Nicopolis - Basket of fruit reverse. Ill go check that out.

Some of the pro's use a dentist drill with a brass brush head... rather than use it end on (which can damage the coin) they just tickle the coin with the spinning edge of the head and very light pressure so the bristles just flick across the surface... it removes the dirt and gives silver a shine.

Again though a technique to be really careful with so they claim.

Coin #1 looks like it says Nikopolis. Possibly Septimius Severus