| Author |
 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,210 |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
I got this at christmas encrusted in a thick claylike mud which wouldnt budge, so being an idiot, I decided to strip it with acid. Smart move or what? Anyway, it looked like a horrific bronze pitted monstrosity and sat like that for months. But now I've tried my hand at restoration like they do so often in eastern europe - call it smoothing if you like, I'm calling it aggressive cleaning. Ill be clearing out the fields a bit more before I call it done and ill be leaving the letters with patina between them to hightlight them. The reverse remains mostly patinated so it can be easily shown to be real.  Personally, I'm happy with the result. Predepatination, you couldnt see any detail at all (even the letters you see now where obfuscated by the thick patina). It may have been wortht more patinated, but I'm not intending to sell. It now shimmers a nice lustrous golden colour. |
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
3626 Posts |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Netherlands
1204 Posts |
Good work! Looks really fine
|
|
Pillar of the Community
 United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Okay, I'm done with removing metal. I did the last go over in concentric circles which has left a lustre effect which I'm qutie happy with. some scratches left, I need to do another bit of buffing (im finishing off with wet and dry then displaying). I've included a picture of the reverse, so you can see how I've left that. You can see the horrid copper colour it was before I used physical depatination on it.   Much nicer in hand. Lustrous, golden and shimmering. Its a chunky planchet, I might depatinate a bit of the rim and write the info on the edge. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Jeeze, Ben thats really aggressive. Was there any chance that you could have removed the dirt without stripping the coin down to the bare metal, I am sure it looks pretty cool. Kind of gives you an idea of the color it was when it was in circulation. An impressive and menacing coin in hand.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Its my largest roman too. 33mm wide and nearly 4mm thick. The clay would have been removable eventually, but it would have taken well over a year (I left it a couple of months before depatinating and there was very little change, even with picking). And the patina which could be exposed was thick and uneven - flaking off in places. It was so thick that the lettering was not visible through it! I got a surprise when I took it out of the acid and found it has some legend surviving. I used a dremel to budge as much clay as possible beforehand - this tore off the already flaking patina, which is why it came out so uneven.
The S in SC wasnt visible before it was depatinated - that should give you an idea of how beefily it was coated.
|
|
Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
I think if you had let this coin soak in olive oil or distilled water for six months or so it would have still retained it's patina and the crud would have been removed and you would have a decent coin. IMO you ruined a possibly good coin. They say "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" So I guess if you like it that's all that counts.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Its true, it could have been a ncie coin. But it wouldnt have been so detailed and would have had an uneven patina. I personally prefer this, because I dont have a nice sestertius with original colour and the brass is very attractive. I do regret depatinating it, but if I hadn't, I would have a still worthless sestertius with many months of cleaning left to do.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4981 Posts |
I've got one I'm going to give a similar treatment to. it sat in olive out for 9 months, I picked at it probably 9 times over that period. it has spots were there is some nice patina, in other is almost tumor-like in thickness, and in some spots the patina is gone. so I'm not loosing anything, there's certainly a time when this type of thing is a ok option, for me at least.
|
| |
Replies: 8 / Views: 1,210 |
|
Posted 08/19/2013 07:01 am
