Advice on Owl

Dear Sirs

I just bought this "Owl" tetradrachm to compliment my "Alexander".
Thus I am now a collector

My speciment is not fantastic, but I´m very happy with it. Holding a coin more that 2.000 years old is an amazing feeling !
It has been cleaned, but there is still some black residue in the crevasses and along the
edges of the relief. Since it has been cleaned quiet heavily any way, I would like to get the rest of the "dirt" off. How can I do that, without damaging the coin ?

Any comments on the coin and type is most welcomed,- I know it is from the "classical"periode, but would like to know more.

Yours
Jacob/Copenhagen

 

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Hallo Jacob, velkommen tilbake. Det har vært lenge siden du var på CT. I like your owl, and agree with you that it is a thrill to hold something so old and connected with such a famous place.

I am almost as much of a new ancient collector as you so am not qualified to give advice. I'll wait until the experts chime in, which they will momentarily, I'm sure. If this were my owl, I'd leave it as it is.

Steve

 

Nice looking Owl @Jacob Winther and welcome to the Dark Side.


As far as cleaning, I cannot advise you since I'm terrible at it. Since it is silver, perhaps you can soak the coin in a lemon juice solution. Just like cleaning and shining any silver service in your household, the lemon juice will shine up and remove any tarnish.

 

Welcome Jacob, that’s a nice coin. You could use a wooden toothpick on the soot, and because this is good silver, lemon juice, ammonia or aceton, as long as you rinse in demineralized water thoroughly afterwards. Or start with soap and water. It depends what it is, this soot.
Your patina, if there is one, will go, too.

 

Here are before and after shots of a coin I cleaned with lemon juice:

 

Welcome, Jacob. I also start off collecting ancient Greek coins with Alexander and Owl tetradrachms. These coins are so cool. That chunky feeling...

On the other hand, the Owls are quite addicting. You may end up buying more Owls in the future. If you do, you may want to look at the "early transitional" type in the future. It is the time period before the classical owl. I find their Athena and Owl designs more appealing than the mass-produced classical style.

 

Hi Steve
Thanks for your comments. Yes,- I'm uncertain about further cleaning, but guess the coin can wait a bit longer
Do I detect a fellow scanidinav ?
Yours
Jacob

 

@Jacob Winther, du har det rett. My grandfather and great-grandparents on my father's side came from Rømskog, Norway. I've been "back" about 40 times, most recently in January.

I can't speak Danish, but read it and mostly understand spoken Danish. My wife has relatives in Denmark whom we've visited, but it's been quite a few years.

I started my ancient/medieval "collection" with a Constantine almost fifty years ago and still am quite the novice. I'm focusing on historical figures such as Nero, Hadrian, William the Conqueror, Elizabeth I, etc. I hope to do some presentations for young folks in the future, allowing them to "touch history," and hoping that some of them get a hunger for history and/or coin collecting.

Steve

 

I'm noticing that Steve here has a cup with a "Lutefisk soup" commercial. That's so Norwegian even I haven't tried it. And never will!

 

LOL. The cup is a joke. I was forced to eat lutefisk in January...not physically forced, but sort of a friendly intimidation...and I made it through. If there ever was an actual Cream of Lutefisk soup I would NEVER eat it, even if physically forced.

Steve

 

I don't think I would try cleaning it. That looks like horn silver, and while it can be removed (there's a couple good threads on it if you search), you never know what it's going to look like underneath. With such a valuable coin (even in this condition), I don't think it's worth the risk.

 

Dear Sirs

Thank you very much for your kind remarks and advice.
I'll reconsider trying to clean further.
For now I'm off to drool over some Aegina turtles

Yours
Jacob

 

Hi Steve

What a nice term and sentiment,- "touch history".
All the best "held og lykke" with your noble and fine endeavour.

Yours
Jacob

 

That was my first thought as well. I wouldn’t clean it myself.

As far as the coin itself goes, the horn silver detracts a little, but it still retains good eye appeal. Other than that, the scratches on the reverse in the right field and the crack across the helmet are also a little distracting to me. If you paid accordingly for a coin with a couple problems, then I think you did a fine job selecting your first owl.

One other thing to add: it looks like the surface might be a bit crystallized in places. If so, you might have further crystallization inside the coin, so handle it carefully and don’t drop it on a hard surface. Crystallized silver is quite brittle and might actually be the source of the obverse crack.

 

I would advise that you keep the coin as-is. Any attempt to remove the silver sulfide would do more harm than good.

Over time the coin with tone somewhat, so the brighter areas will blend with the dark encrusted areas.

 

Not everything you learn on Coin Talk has anything to do with coins. I am at a stage of life that I am certain I will never travel to Scandinavia or even Minnesota but I found this article very interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk
The highlight to me was the need for this line:
"The Wisconsin Employees' Right to Know Law specifically exempts lutefisk in defining "toxic substances".[13]"
We each come from a culture with certain dietary identities. You may have your Lutefisk. I will go have some of my home made Kefir cheese.

 

I ate lutefisk once many years ago to impress a girlfriends' parents. The relationship ended amicably but the memory of lutefisk still haunts me to this day. It should most certainly be reclassified as toxic.

 

I’ve had lutefisk a few times, as it’s a traditional course here. It’s not very good, though... What people who say they love the lutefisk dinners before Christmas most often compliment this fish-gel with, is «but the side dishes are wonderful. I just put on a lot of bacon».
Myth says that lutefisk was invented when a fishery in northern Norway burned to the ground with all the dried fish stored for the winter inside. The fishermen and families were able to find some of it still edible, and that kept them from starvation. However, the ash and water had become lye, which again had given the fish a gelly substance. I choose to believe that myth.

 

Is the kefir cheese some kind of traditional food, Doug? And in case, from where?

 

Nice Athens Tetradrachm.

I recommend that you delay with any further cleaning of the coin. You can always attempt a cleaning sometime later...... I personally like it just the way it is now. If it were my coin, I would fear that assaulting the black (possibly very hard horn silver) might make the coin look less attractive. Remember that you cannot undo a cleaning.

I'd be extra careful when handling the coin with friends. If it gets dropped onto a hard surface (like a glass tabletop) the coin could shatter or at least break at the crack. Ancient coins are funny like that. Always handle it over a soft surface.