coin cleaning

hi all,
thought i'd do a coin cleaning thread, for the good, bad, and ugly. feel free to post any of your also.

i don't have before and after pics of all my cleaned coins, switch coins between containers and loose track of what went where, sometime if i can tell a coins is going to be a turd i won't even take a before picture....and i've got plent of culls.

here are a few that were disappointing, note the three coins from the seller pic...thought they looked interested and drew me to the lot....



all these only took about a month, here's number 1







it's a probus, consevat avg reverse, minted in ticinum or siscia, mint mark is gone.


here's number 2,





it's a maximian from the cyzicus mint.

neither one came out great, were in rougher shaper than i was hoping. ENG, if you want the maximian, it's all yours, just let me know. :yes:

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

here's number 3, this one is just weird had a very chalky weak patina, which came off with the dirt. when i was done cleaning it looked like a dalmatian. so i removed what patina was left with vinegar, gave a thin coat of wax, and it looked like this...





a julian ii vot from the siscia mint, rough but kind of neat.

here's what it look like now, 1 week after original pic..





what's up with that? none of that green flakes off, but again, it has a coat of wax. (also i baked the coin before i waxed it to get rid of moisture)

 

here' one that turned out good, before...






3 months after..





these pictures don't really do it justice, but it's a constantine ii of the thessalonica mint

 

here's a few more, sorry about the before pics...i'm not trying to make them look crappy intentionally...but it turned out that way sometimes.





after..





theodosius i vot
379-392ad
ric ix cyzicus 21c

 

not a huge improvement here..









claudius ii divo cladio altar reverse, unknown mint

 

this one came out awesome, here is a poor pic of the uncleaned obverse, note is was taken after about about a month of cleaning had already been done.



here's the sellers pic of the coin lot, you can see the campgate reverse on the bottom middle..




here it is 4 months (probably close to 5 months) later...






nice silvering, very pretty color!

constantine i
326-328 ad
constans-tivs avg
providen-tiae avvg
smts epsiolon in ex
ric vii thessalonica 153

 

I'm not much into ancient's, but it looks like you have done one heck of a great job bringing these back to life.

 

Can you break down the process that you are using on these? This may be helpful for folks looking to try it.

 

sure LD, and thanks MD...

when i first get them i soak for a few hours in water with a dab of dish soap then work with plastic toothpick and toothbrush, get the stuff that comes off easily. then stick them in distilled water..

wait a week, hit with metal needle (careful!) and toothbrush, again, getting what come off fairly easily...wash rinse and repeat until happy.

 

Good cleanin' job, chrsmat71 ... you have certainly become the clean-machine, eh? (well done)

:high5:

 

Chris to see the fruit of your labor is awesome, you just don't know how well these coins turn out, some better than others. Well done, :thumb::thumb:

 

thanks guys!

 

here's one i completed recently, not a great looking coin but clean up good...












licinius i
317-320 ad
ric viii cyzicus 9
2.8g, 19.5mm

 

From rags, to riches => sweeet cleanin', my good man => well done!!


:high5:

 

well, I picked up a few coins and did some cleaning again. here's the first pics from a batch of ten.

before..





after..





mixed results, I thought the licinius and chick coin on the left may be nice, but neither were. chick coin had dark gunk that was hard to remove, I gave up and passed it one to someone else to clean. licinius just worn/weakly struck . top right two poor, middle top total cull. the bottom left valens turned out to be a pretty nice securitas repub from siscia..one I didn't have so that one is a keeper. I have two more done, i'll post later or tomorrow.

these took between 2 weeks and 3 months, the nice valens took the longest.

 

Wow some really nice coins there, I've just recently re-taken up the hobby if cleaning ancients and have had some trouble in doing so (some trial and error). At the moment I've just stuck with soaking in demineralised water for up to a week, and then even longer soaking periods in olive oil (have some soaking for about a month now). I've been gently brushing them with a tooth brush between soaks but haven't mustered up the courage to use any kind of picks haha. Do you have any tips for how to use picks carefully and what type of picks to use?

 

Nice work, Chris. Cleaning is not my cup of tea at all, but I do appreciate seeing good work.

 

I like what you've done with them and the simple method you've used. Sometimes I wish I had the patience to clean. Anyway, nice job!

 

Great job Chris, i like dinking with these kind of things, long process.i purchased 10 coins a couple months back, i trying to find some good cleanable coins for the YN's. so i wanted to clean these to see what kind of outcome i would get.
9 of the coins i cleaned were not much more dirt, wore out coins with green patina. But last night, i went to clean one and it looked silver, so i worked on it for a while and found it had this lettering..IVLIA MAESA AVG..Julia Maesa, what looks like Sol reverse.
What is neat, it's in a heavy silver case, i think its a fouree', the edge is silver, took a file and has a bronze core.
it will be fun to see what i come up with..might be months.i got a Cannon Rebel 3ti for Christmas, these are my first pictures, can't get a close up, went to macro but the flash keeps opening. i'll get it figured out some day..
( Note these still need to be cleaned a bunch).

 

Very nice C!