This Licinius follis had the worst case of verdigris I had ever seen! After a nice dunk in hydroxide, he's now cured of his disease. The chemical actually revealed a bit of silvering on the back as well
Fun coin. But I honestly much prefer the original, looking it's age. Though, I always enjoy victory crowning folks (fun reverse), the obverse just shows more pitting and the coin loses a certain amount of class, to me. Here's mine, that probably could use a bit of cleaning. But I'm quite happy with it the way it is:
I never was a huge fan of verdigris.... But I do get your point. Your coin looks great and even I wouldn;t touch it!
Zeus knows I've, what I now feel, over cleaned some coins. But again, your reverse certainly revealed more secrets when cleaned. I can see both sides and have gone either way. But at this point, I do my best to enjoy holding and maybe some cuddling with my coins but no more changing (unless necessary, ala a case of bronze disease).
It’s a tough call. This coin was obviously over cleaned in the past, so it was already gone through the wringer. I probably wouldn’t have messed with it too much if it had original patina, but that was all stripped away in the past. Maybe I’ll put this in a Manila envelope on a windowsill for a year to see if I can refine it a bit
