Wow...what a little lemon juice can do

Just received this today. I immediately cut a lemon in half and brushed on some lemon juice. I stopped before taking off any of the beautiful toning, I wanted to preserve that. The lemon juice took off the crud and the second picture is what the coin looks like now. I then used some bicarb to neutralize the acid.


Before


After

 

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I like diluted white vinegar, but vinegaraid doesn't taste as good. But I don't have to use a knife and waste a whole lemon.

 

I only used half a lemon. The other half was sliced up to go on top of a turkey breast in the oven.

 

Nice work! The coin looks great.

 

No waste!

 

But, more on topic, looks great.

 

Wow! That is impressive, @Orfew ! I'm going to have to experiment with that technique on a few Judaean prutot!

 

Lemon juice is best used on silver and reasonably good silver at that. It's effects on copper and billon can be harsh.

There is certainly room for that opinion. It might have been possible to remove the green without losing all tone using a weaker dilution or shorter time with some careful local application. On the other hand, the coin will tone down again to be less glaring in a few decades. It is pushing 2000 and has learned to be patient.

 

I wouldn't have cleaned it. Before it was a beautiful coin with original hoard patina, and now it's just another shinny Flavian.

Not that it isn't pretty now, because it still is a very pretty coin either way ...but now it's lost some of its character.

 

This coin has lost none of it character at all. I just removed the gunk from the coin. The photo makes the coin look flat and shiny...it is not. The coin is very darkly toned. None of the toning was removed. The only thing removed was the stuff adhering to the coin.

I repeat it is not shiny at all. The toning has been preserved. It is my poor photography giving a different impression.

 

We see a difference of opinion here but the after photo might be improved if indeed the coin still has toning. Silver with 'find' patina can be attractive of distracting with just a little more or less evenness. One person's beautiful is another's blotchy. I did not clean this one.

 

This is much closer to how the coin looks but the coin is darker still than this photo shows. I played with the lighting to get this shot. this shot does not show the very high relief of the portrait.

 

Ok, that's better

 

Very nice Andrew. You got that for a steal. Next time we're together I'm gonna give you a photography lesson!

 

Thanks Jay, I will take you up on that lesson. I have a number of skills but photography is definitely not one of them.

As for the coin I will gladly pay 65.00 plus shipping for an R2 Titus denarius any day of the week.

 

Those are some spectacular results orfew!

 

Here is a Titus Caesar denarius I've had for over 15 years and haven't cleaned.

Original photo:



It's a bit darker now, which I actually prefer.