How Clean Should A Roman Coin Be?

oh ok so just let them soke
so is it better to have them Shiny like new again aor like my Avatar wich is not shiny ?


JasonBD

The general rule of thumb is to clean an uncleaned ancient coin until it is identifiable. This takes skill and patience, neither of which I have.

The two main difficulties involved with cleaning ancients:

1. In many cases, the coins have accumulated a thick oxide layer, or patina, and the surface details are preserved only in this patina. Usually, this is in turn encased in a layer of "dirt", and the boundary between dirt and patina can in some instances be very hard to spot. The details in the patina can be easily destroyed by a hasty, careless cleaning job.

2. Some coins simply never have any recoverable details, no matter how carefully you clean or how much patina is or isn't removed. Maybe they were buried in a highly corrosive environment, or they may have simply been very well worn in ancient circulation before they were buried. It's educated guesswork whether a particular uncleaned coin will wind up a "slug" or a "hidden gem".

A collector of modern coins who starts to collect ancients must unlearn what they have learned. Green is good. Shiny is bad. Cleaning coins (once) is not only acceptable, but necessary. "Mint errors" like off-centre, double-struck etc. cause a coin to go down in value, not up. And minor varieties and variations rarely cause a great shift in value.

If you were in Rome a few thousand years ago a dirty coin would probably be just as good as a clean one. However, presently I would leave well enough alone unless you really know what your doing. If whatever you do ruins the coin, it is not easy to go back in time for another one.