Can a coin like this be cleaned?

I found this Ptolemy coin and i'm actually wondering if this coin can be cleaned? And if it is cleaned will it turn out better or will there just be an undetailed mess behind it? I am not even sure if it is dirt or patina I can't really tell. I have no experience at all in cleaning, so if it needs more than an acetone bath then I will skip this one I think. Opinions are appreciated. Thank you.

 

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It looks like there is both dirt and patina on this well-preserved coin. Aside from soaking it in olive oil for a while or giving it an acetone bath (or perhaps doing nothing to it at all), I would adhere to your own advice as this one is too nice for someone with no prior experience to practice on. If at some point you would like it to be cleaned in greater depth, I would send it to an expert who has a lot of experience in cleaning or otherwise preserving ancient coins.

 

If you must clean only clean the high spots and leave the sand "patina"in the fields. If you clean it all it may be pitted underneath and you can never put it back. I wouldn't soak it in anything and I'd leave it as is.

 

don't clean just get a toothpick and light scratch the dirt off. don't even use water. it will hurt the coin.

 

I know you really shouldnt do this, but I have cleaned many coins using a brass fine wire brush.

If the coin is extremely corroded and you dont really care about the patina( which I dont since most of my coins I got are fairly rough and cheap, you could use a brass wire brush wheel tip on a dremel



it can get all in the nooks and crannies without really damaging the coin... depending on the corrosion. it helps bring out the bust or legend from underneath alot of crud from the thousands of years buildup on the coin ...

it can even polish the patina up of you use it lightly.

and brass is as soft as the alloys that they used back then ( brass/copper/ orichalcum )

I would not use a brass wire brush on silver, it would damage the coin permanently.

With the wheels, I have turned culls into half decent coins to my collection- Some that could have never been IDed without cleaning.

If keeping the patina is too important to you then dont try it, otherwise, its worth a shot. Keep in mind I dont plan on ever selling the coins I purchase- at least not for a long time.

try it on a cheap Roman orichalcum coin( like a constans I/constantinus II. You can see the difference it makes after you use it.

 

Actually it does damage coins... beyond repair. Wire brushes will scratch the surface of a coin, drastically reducing it's numismatic value. Dremels are even more dangerous. They'll completely mess up a coin and immediately remove any collectors value it may have.

It's nice that you're trying to give advice and help out other collectors but this advice will end up hurting more than helping.

 

This would be my recommendation. It probably can be cleaned, but an inexperienced hand would likely butcher it and this is better than the uncleaned junk that most people get. It's nice as is. If you want it cleaned I'd send it to a professional, though it won't be cheap. I've paid around $100 per coin in the past for this service.

 

Use a sonic wash.

 

That's a nice coin and you

NO

 

That is a nice coin and you really don't want to do any damage to it. I am not a fan of what is called a "sand" patina, since it is often faked. If this were suspected of being a very rare and expensive coin, I would not touch it, and hopefully someone here will speak up. Lacking that, brushing it with a stiff bristled toothbrush or some such implement would remove loose debris without harming the coin. I would stay away from power tools (sorry @RomanGreekCoin3) because you can get too intense too quickly. If water removes a patina, it was probably not a patina (except a "sand" patina). Start off with the brush and let's see what it looks like. Where did you get it and what do you collect?

 

I am talking about very cheap low grade coins with alot of corrosion to begin with. I would never use the brush on silver or higher grade coins. Some coins are so worn that the only way to get an ID is to buff it with a brush. I have tried everything before and they dont work.Electrolysis, Sonic wash, Acetone, And i stated that these coins are cheap and I wasnt planning on ever selling them.

 

I tend to stay away from electrolysis and sonic.

 

You edited the post after my comment

The original one was very misleading but the new version is much better.

 

The only cleaning that can be done on this is removing the dirt by hand which would take me 20 to 30 hours under magnification, but yours appears to adhere and may not come off easily or without damaging the green patina underneath. The problem with starting something like this is you will have to finish it once started. As a partial job it would not look good. Any oils would leave the dirt looking 'wet' permanently and not be desirable. I can't tell from the low resolution, but the inscription appears worn or weakly struck, and cleaning may not help much there. As others said removing the patina all together may reveal unattractive pitting which I already can see on the eagle's chest. Fortunately the bust is detailed enough. I would leave it alone.

 

sonic doesnt do a thing. its good for buffing jewelry. I tried to clean a coin once. It didnt make a dent

 

Thank you for all the responses. Just to let everyone know, I found this coin for cheap, I don't own or buy the coin or anything, I think I didn't make it that clear in my post. I was considering buying it if the coin could be easy to clean (if it was just some dirt for example), as I find Ptolemy coins very attractive. However I rather spend some more bucks and get a nice bronze colored ptolemy coin. Atleast I know for next time that ancient coins are quite hard to clean!

 

The main thing you learned is we have more different opinions than we have people posting. I have my opinions but prefer to stick to the point that doing something inappropriate can rarely be corrected while doing nothing leaves the coin available for a later owner to do what seems best later. Please don't use olive oil on it; please don't buzz it with power tools. A soft brass brush might help but is better used in hand than at 3000 RPM. Not all brass brushes are the same. Some are soft and gentle but some feel like steel painted yellow. You might like the results if you stick it in a pocket and check it every few days/weeks/months. Then again, you might not. The coin is a type you can find as is without alteration. The safe move is to search for a coin you like and leave this one to be destroyed by someone else.

 

Quote of the day!

 

I prefer a soft brass brush as well.

 

I used olive oil bath with some LRBs that I got in a late roman uncleaned lot. It worked for some of the coins, combined with a toothbrush and toothpick, to remove the layered on crud. But it did leave the coins darkened in appearance. Here is an example of an uncleaned lot that I cleaned up over the period of a few months of soaking and scrubbing:



As you can see, some cleaned up better than others. Usually I find the heavily encrusted ones hopeless and they go into the cull mayonnaise jar. The other ones I keep in a cigar box.

These days I have "retired" from cleaning and only buy good quality coins as I find the cleaned LRB's worth very little individually. If I can get 4 nice coins for $400 I consider this a better investment than a hoard with 350 coins or so for $400.

I have more FEL TEMP REPARATIO and GLORIA EXERCITVS types than I know what to do with. I consider the above advice pretty sound actually.