An ancient newbie buys an uncleaned batch

So no experience whatsoever with ancients and someone said you can pick them up and enjoy them (@Jwt708). I said no, I have enough problems. Just check them out he said and gave me a couple of links.

It is all very well redefining your focus and with British or US coins that is not simple, but far harder when looking at ancients. Greek? Roman? Horses? Soldiers? I had no idea and needed a place to start. eBay is my friend and I came across a guy flogging uncleaned Roman bronze coins.

Where can it go wrong? Simple right? I decided as there is loads of conflicting advice I'd ignore most of it and start a 'Teach yourself cleaning Roman Bronze Coins in as long as it takes' course. I started today. If you are interested, join me for the ride. I'm going to try to document exactly what an idiot I am.

 

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You're not an idiot. All ancient coins are cleaned. Someone has to do it, and those of us that like collecting cleaned coins have to pay our respects to those that have the patience to undertake the task. Post pics and let us know how it's going!

 

Day -1.
Read stuff to decide how I am going to clean the coins. Choose and buy coins. Decided to get a total of 24 coins and split them into three batches as I will have a control (simple distilled water, initially warm to almost boiling and chuck them in), use a jewellry Ultrasonic cleaner for two minutes and then chuck them into almost distilled boiling water, then the third 8 into a Electrolysis bath then into almost boiling distilled water. I'll then leave them for a couple of days to see what happens after taking some snaps.

 

Day 1. Coins arrive. Yay!

Decided to get a 'heavily encrusted batch of 12 and a uncleaned batch from the same guy. Cost a bit under £20.

The first 4 or each batch in water and phase1 moving. Total 8 coins.

The second batch of 4 of each batch in the Ultrasonic cleaner for a couple of minutes and in the water.

The third batch will join them after the electrolsys thing arrives.

The coins look pretty yuk dry but you can see more detail when wet. I have one that looks good - the rest look pretty much like rocks.

Day 1 and despite either method used I cannot see much difference. Looking forward to next gadget arriving from eBay.

 

Thanks for the vote and confidence! Seriously, if you have any tips they will be gratefully received. Next steps for me right now are to leave them alone for a few days and then change the water and use a cotton bud to see what is loose.

The batches and methods are in different boxes so that I may keep track of the progress of each coin.

 

Here's the most comprehensive ancient coin cleaning writeup I've seen.

 

Thank you. Very kind of you to add the link. Not sure why but it isn't working for me right now but I will check again later.

 

It's a .pdf document. Perhaps it it just taking a long time to load.

In addition to being very explicit and thorough, the author has a great sense of humor.

 

It's a pdf file, a must-read for anyone wanting to clean ancient coins. I've attached it to this post. You need a pdf reader, like Adobe, to open it

 

Gotta' re-visit my cleaning post and put some pics in.

 

I'm glad to see you took the leap. I think based on your collecting habits you may find a very rewarding new avenue with ancients. Me...well you know already but I would rather buy a couple of 4 packs of Carlsberg Special Brew at the Co-Op or a nice, already cleaned coin than subject myself to the work of cleaning (not to mention my fears of cull lots).

I think you should consider buying a nice, inexpensive coin just to see what else is out there.

Really, best of luck!

 

Thanks for a great/detailed writeup on the right way to clean/conserve bronze coins!

 

All the difference 24hrs makes? Some. Obviously the loose mud has come off leaving a harder coating. Still it is pretty satisfying giving the coins a rub with a cotton bud and seeing the crud start to lift.

I have now also started the third batch in warm water thinking that the worst that will happen is that some muck will lift off.

All distilled water chucked and replaced with hand hot distilled water.

Decided that before zapping with more ultra sonic or even starting with the electrolysis I am going to do a full review. There are far more hints today the there is something under the layers and a lot of the coins and I don't want to do harm to something just because it is a particular batch.

Wonder if anything other than a water change tomorrow?

 

The bright green stuff on one of those coins looks like bronze disease. See the paper linked above for treatment information.

 

I had a good read through the pdf and as you say, well written and full of information. I have to agree that there is some bronze disease and I will try to buy some of the cure tomorrow.

 

If you can't find ready-made sodium sesquicarbonate, you can approximate it by mixing baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) with washing soda (sodium carbonate), both readily available and most general stores. See this article for proportions.

 

Had a good swab of the coins and now wondering when enough is enough. The thing with these coins, they don't come with a guide titled - 'This is what is it supposed to look like'. For a newbie that is a problem.

So after 24 hours in a warm bath (that got cold) and a bit of a swab with a cotton bud (Q-Tip) this one looks like this. It weighs 2.26gms and has a diameter of 22.85mm and looks like this. I have a feeling it is a very worn something or other and, when the mud remnants are cleaned off, about done.

Any thoughts? Does it need a longer soak? Any ideas what it may be? If I were to guess I'd say it was a figure with a spear and a head on the other side.

 

Let me just say that these coins have been around for almost 2,000 years and you don't have to be so gentle with them. A good tool is a toothbrush which you have cut the bristles to half length so they are much stiffer. Use this to scrub on the coins. Additionally, put some soap in the water, after all, if you wash your hands, you don't just use water.

 

I don't think additional cleaning will help this one much.

The reverse figure is someone standing left, cornucopia cradled in one arm, the other arm outstretched and holding something. As for the portrait... who knows. The profile has a somewhat Gallienus-y look. You might be able to narrow down the candidates-- and that exercise can be fun and educational-- but it's likely to remain a guess.

 

I am fast coming to the conclusion that the key thing when cleaning ancient coins is correctly picking the coins to work from. Don't buy a batch unseen.

Don't misunderstand me, I am not throwing the towel in with the current batches but fast coming to the conclusion that they are mostly very low grade. This seems to be borne out by the seller I got mine from is selling very nice cleaned coins. There is a possibility that he randomly selects the coins he cleans, but realistically he is going to pick for the bunch and flog the rest.

A progress update on day 4 shows a few very smooth metal lumps with few distinguishing marks and some show some promise of faint lines and designs underneath. The mud has all dissolved and even some of the more crusted coins are starting to 'melt the crud off. Without doubt there are some signs of bronze disease but most of the crud dissolves other patches. I have a feeling that the majority of these coins are so flat there is very little to key the crud to. The good news is that the crud dissolves off - the bad news it dissolves off leave little hope for the future.

So a scrub with cotton buds and a water change completed.