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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SorenCoins, post: 4652863, member: 73708&quot;]Hi there everybody!</p><p><br /></p><p>I while ago I bought 10 uncleaned ancient Holy Land coins from a website called &quot;Dirty Old Coins.&quot; I did not know much about them then, and I still don&#039;t really know anything about them now. So, that&#039;s where the fun part comes in! Now is the perfect time to spend some time learning from these coins!</p><p><br /></p><p>Some of the coins in this batch probably won&#039;t even need to be cleaned, since they are already pretty much free of dirt. When I received these coins, I was pretty surprised. There was really quite a variety. There were coins that were easily identifiable as Roman with the busts of emperors, and some that are clearly Islamic or Arabic of origin based on the characters. Beyond that, I can not really tell anything. I figured this thread could be a running diary, so-to-speak, of the process of identifying these coins. I posted one of these coins a while ago under a thread &quot;<a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/help-on-identifying-this-countermarked-roman.312188/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/help-on-identifying-this-countermarked-roman.312188/">Help on Identifying this Countermarked Roman?!</a>,&quot; and I definitely learned some things.</p><p><br /></p><p>For the first thread on these coins, I want to show the process I am following for soaking two of the coins. These coins both look Roman to me since the outline of a bust is visible. You can see some exposed copper on the coins, since I did try to do a little &quot;preliminary cleaning&quot; on them right after getting them. I did not really know what I was doing, though. I believe I just soaked them in lemon juice and abraded them with something (maybe a bristle brush or even maybe paper towel). Anyways, these are the two coins that I think would benefit the most from soaking in water to remove the dirt. Here are some pictures of them:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148885[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148886[/ATTACH] </p><p>If I had to guess, I would say they are both later-date Roman AEs based on their small size, and that the first one is a coin of Valens, Valentinian I, or Valentinian II, while the second one is of Arcturus or Honorius.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the soaking set-up:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148890[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148891[/ATTACH] </p><p>I put them in this Tupperware, filled it with water, and put the lid over it. I have heard to use distilled water, but I used drinking (spring) water. I don&#039;t think that the drinking water would have a lot of chlorine in it. It was that, or tap water. Our tap water comes from a well, but I figured drinking water would be more purified.</p><p><br /></p><p>How long am I supposed to soak these for?</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, I think that&#039;s it for the first post. I am always welcome to comments, concerns, questions, coin pics, or any other information! I am still trying to learn my way with ancients, so this is definitely an exciting little adventure.</p><p><br /></p><p>I will title this step of the adventure: &quot;Uncleaned Roman Coins: Soaking In Water.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Soren Rollin <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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