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 Replies: 12 / Views: 1,706 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2540 Posts |
I have to give a lecture/seminar at the FMDAC [Federation of Metal Detectors & Archaeological Clubs Inc.] annual convention . I have been asked to speak about cleaning of coins. Yes, gasp! Cleaning. However, realize that these are dug coins. So, all ideas/suggestions solutions, welcome! Please help me, with your successful & unsuccessful trials & attempts. Go for it. Thanks a bunch. Any internet links please let me know, post them below. Realize, folks: These are dug coins that are covered in dirt, or from salt water recoveries, or where ever. Frank  *** Edited by Staff to remove YELLING from the subject *** |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2540 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1109 Posts |
For non-valuable, face-value dig finds I get, and especially zinc cents that have a bit of corrosion started on them, I put them in the rock tumbler with some sand and water and a few small rocks for about 6 hours. They don't come out shiny, but they do come out with the gunk cleaned off and they are then easily spendable...if the zincs haven't rotted away too much, of course.
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17951 Posts |
If I'm on the beach and I dig up some cupro-nickel coins (5p, 10p, 20p and 50p) that have gone dark brown, I often just walk down to the water's edge and rub them in damp sand between thumb and forefinger for a couple of minutes - it gets them into spendable condition which is all I need. I seldom bother to clean 1p and 2p coins but have spent quite a lot of them 'as dug' without any problem!
I use soapy water on anything that I think might be going into my collection, sometimes using an old nail brush to get the crud off - wouldn't do this to a really valuable find though!
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Valued Member
United States
186 Posts |
I use a rock tumbler too ..for those really nasty coins.. sometimes even from rolls, you know what is on some of them
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
For "softer" removals, don't forget the "freeze/thaw in plain water" method. Non-intrusive and works well for plain dirt.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
972 Posts |
Whew...dug coins. Had me worried there for a minute. Was about to give the lecture about do not clean coins.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
For coin recoveries of no or little value,
clean off whatever dirt you can, by rubbing them with your fingers under running water.
Fine wire copper brushing may be a good next step.
If it is more valuable Roman coins found in the U.K. it is lawful to report the finds to a local museum. If they have any sense about them, professional cleaning methods and lots of time may be required. Even with best practice professional methods, there is still some risk involved, although they are much likely to be better of than a non skilled person doing the same job.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Ive cleaned hundreds of romans...theres many tactics. Ill outline 2 which work well for ancient and modern coinage (but I dont recommend using them for modern coinage exactly like this).
Distilled Water:
A pot of distilled water. You place the coins into the pot. Over time, the dirt loosens and dislodges and the ions which cause bronze disease flow off of the coins. Replace the water ocassionally. For roman coin which are encrusted, every once in a while (id say leave a day or so as a minimum between these) give them a brush and a pick. I use a mounted pin to work the dirt off.
Olive oil:
As before, but using olive oil. This is slightly acidic and will remove tough dirt faster (but turn any patina black). It gets everywhere though.
This can take a logn long time. I have a constans still in cleaning from september 2012. Its a stubborn one.
For modern coinage id advise leaving them in olive oil and not to touch them for weeks at a time. Eventually, after quite a while, the coin will come out clean. If it requires BD treatment, get that done first and be very violent with it - you need to remove all the BD at any cost. Gouge out sections of the coin, break patinas. You need to get it all in the first go over.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19961 Posts |
Instead of focusing on specific cleaning methods, you should discuss when cleaning is appropriate and when it is not. Also, talk about cleaning versus conservation. I could easily spend and hour on this topic!
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
9864 Posts |
"Dipping" is not considered cleaning...
-from PCGS website
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1211 Posts |
If you want, I actually wrote a detailed 1 page flowchart on cleaning dug coins. It has never been published but it is still my intellectual property.
For that reason, I will not share it publicly. I would be willing to share it privately for educational purposes only. Email me for details.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
As a start you should just use the Eearch tab on this forum for cleaning coins, coin cleaning, Acetone, Rock Tumblers and anything else you can think of used for cleaning coins.
There have been so many posts about this subject, you could probably end up with a large book on the subject.
People have used almost anything and everything possible to clean coins. To make a list of such things could take up a lot of space just listing the solutions used.
For example: Distilled water, hot water, boiling in water, freezing and then heating, soaking in Orange juice, spitting on the coins, battery acid, Lemon Juice, heating over a stove, Olive Oils, Lava Soap and on and on and on wiath all the STUFF used to clean coins.
I've found mostly the suggesters are people that read what they reply, not having the slightest idea if it is good, bad, horrible, etc.
For coins dug up by metal detection, again there are many different problems. If you find them in just dirt, sand, slime, rocky areas, etc. Were they there for a long time or only a little time? Was the soil acidic? So many vaiables and yet there are those that swear their methods work for everything.
If I were you I'd start out with just the possibilities of so many different situations that each person should know where, how, when, they found what they found. Then take that into consideration prior to any cleaning methods.
And again, you could even mention that they too could simply join this forum and ask in the Search tab for all the possible cleaning situations.
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Replies: 12 / Views: 1,706 |
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Posted 10/17/2013 5:42 pm
