Uh oh! I cleaned a popular coin!

I've not tried the hot water/foil/baking soda trick on ancient coins but I've used it many times on sterling silver and tableware silver.

I agree. I cleaned this coin with white vinegar and it worked rather well

 

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Great coin and conservation VK!
And much better than G detail

 

I did not use sodium carbonate but a similar method for this one. I used a solution of nearly boiling lemon juice, salt and several layers of aluminum foil on the bottom of a small glass container to clean this one. It works very fast. I soaked for probably about 5 minutes total, flipping a few times and scrubbing very lightly with a soft bristled toothbrush each time I flipped the coin. I also did a full rinse with distilled water and baking soda, then another rinse with just DW afterwards.



This coin was largely covered in iron oxide and the areas that show toning here were the ones that were covered the worst when I started. Soap and water wouldn't touch it, nor would my mechanical tools so I had to resort to the electrolytic reduction to clean it.

 

I really enjoy the results you got from your method. Very nice.

 

Thanks for the additional comments and great cleaning job guys! I'm glad to see a discussion come about in my thread. I'm sure some of us have learned something new with regards to cleaning (I definitely have).

Eight-hundred years after my Tiberius denarius, we have my Carolingian denier, the one I referred to earlier in the thread. Lemon juice took off a lot of the hard crud within like 10 minutes, which greatly impressed me. Finished what remained over a couple of days. Its pretty gnarly, but its a rare Venice-mint issue, struck by the nominally independent republic (it was under Frankish influence at the time).

Louis the Pious, Carolingian Empire/Republic of Venice
AR denier
Obv: +HLVDOVVICVS IMP, legend around cross in circle
Rev: +VEN / ECIAS, legend in two lines
Mint: Venice
Date: 818-840 AD
Ref: MG 456v, MEC 789

 

And probably one of the most distantly related coins to Tiberius is my AE fals of the Umayyad Caliphate, struck a little over seven centuries after Tiberius lived, in the city that was founded and named after him: Tiberias (in Arabic: طبرية ‎‎/ Tabariyyah).

Anonymous, Umayyad Caliphate
AE fals
Obv: The Kalima, in 3-line script, within three circles
Rev: In Arabic script: "Muhammad rasul Allah"
Mint: Tabariyyah / Tiberias
Date: 749 AD
Ref: Album 188

 

idk ti.. i kinda like the coloring on the reverse

 

i love colorful coins tho.. i won't buy'em fer that reason, but i do like'em

 

oh! i thought you were gonna say.. look what happens when you leave it too long.

 

Yeah. The harsh, evil lemonade breaks off chunks of the coin after a while...

 

haha! vile evil lemonade...

 

nice, you should tell us the best solution u used in that

 

Here is a demo of what I use, the first stage is pretty much the same as the OP's, an acidic solution with a good soak in water afterwards. Then I use some aluminium foil, wet it, place the mat side against the coin and cover the whole coin. Press it into the coin and fold across the edges so it is secure. Then with a wet cotton bud gently work the foil into the lettering and image of the coin on both sides, rather like doing a brass rubbing. You want as much of the foil in contact with as much of the coin as is possible.
Leave it for about 10 minutes, it will stink (hydrogen sulphide) and when you remove the foil the coin will be a lot darker. Then just use the same cotton bud/tooth brush with some normal dish washing detergent and gently scrub it, drying it with a cloth.
Repeat the foil stage as necessary.
Never be tempted to rub the coin with the foil, it will do it no good!
1 is the original coin. 2 is after the acidic solution. 3 is after the foil and 4 is after the wash.

 

I know most of these pieces have been silver, but has anyone used the lemon juice or ammonia solutions on LRB? I have one I've been working on for about two weeks now. I'm interested in giving another method a try, especially since you guys have been getting such great results!

I'm working on one that's VERY similar to this and will give the same lemon juice bath a shot.

Great thread @ValiantKnight and great input all! I've certainly learned a lot reading this thread!

 

Nice cleaning job on that one! And such a desirable coin too!

 

Lemon juice will eat the patina off bronze coins and leave them ugly bare copper. I would only use it as a last resort on bronze coins. I would try 35% hydrogen peroxide or brushing with a brass brush first.

 

i was just bidding on a 1816 coin like your example a while back

 

Thanks guys for the additional compliments! About lemon juice on bronze coins, I realize results may vary (as with the bronze coin successfully cleaned on a previous page) but I also would try to avoid doing this unless nothing else worked. I attempted lemon juice on what I thought was a solid silver medieval Spanish denaro. Instead it was billon and the juice must have reacted with the copper in it because parts of the surface had turned an ugly pink and green. I myself am not sure either how ammonia would work on billon or silver-plated coins with copper in them. Bottom-line, definitely look up similar coins to the one you are considering cleaning and see what worked and what didn't.

This is also very important as well:

 

Great! Thank you. I'll give the HP a shot and see how it goes.

Strongly agree. I was testing different metal types with US coins in lemon juice and found that it made both copper and zincolns pretty ugly. It gave them a pink hologramish hue that just didn't look right. I'll probably dabble with the hydrogen peroxide that @Theodosius mentioned above and go from there. Thanks!