Several weeks ago I had won 2 Roman silvers for less than 60 shipped, both unidentified but easy enough to ID. The Hadrian denarius was a gamble, as it was plagued with an ugly mottled black patina and the pictures weren't great, so I wasn't sure that there was a nice coin with good surfaces under the crud: The coins arrived a few days ago, and I quickly set to work treating the Denarius using the electrochemical Aluminum foil and hot electrolyte solution method. After the liquid cooled, I would remove it, poke at it with a sharp bamboo skewer, then replace in reheated solution. After 4 or 5 repetitions, I was left with what I'd consider an awesome denarius, and definitely better than my other Hadrians with its crisp, relatively high-relief portrait and interesting reverse. 3.13g, 19mm Hadrian Denarius. 119-122 AD. IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG, laureate head right, draped left shoulder / P M TR P COS III, AETER-AVG across fields, Aeternitas standing front, head left, holding the heads of the sun and moon. The other is a 3.37g, 18mm Trajan Drachm of Bostra, Arabia. AD 113-114. AYTOKΡ KAIC NEΡ TΡAIAN CEB ΓEΡM, Laureate head right, slight drapery on left shoulder / ΔHMAΡX EX IC (Not sure if it's the "IC" or "IZ" variety) YΠAT ς, Arabia standing left, holding branch and bundle of cinnamon sticks, camel to left. I'm extremely happy with the Denarius, and can't wait for the next cheap ugly beast that I can turn into a beauty!
Wow!! You did turn that ugly beast into a beauty. I don't think I have enough skill or gumption to undertake a cleaning project such as this so my kudos to you. Great job!
Thanks for the comments everyone, all I need are some fresh batteries for the new camera and your eyes will no longer be tormented by my cruddy pics! I'm so very happy with the Denarius, I hadn't set-out to find the specific coin, just stumbled across it like a great proportion of my collection, but I've really fallen in love with it. Such a sweet coin, and the detail of Aeternitas and the heads of Sol and Luna are much better than I was hoping. I guess I'll have to find the 2nd consulship version now! For those of you who may be curious about the cleaning method, I've used it for years to clean crusty black metal-detected US silver coins, and while it's not appropriate for coins with thick black sulfide patina (too much silver will have been converted to the sulfide, so the surfaces will be rather rough and unappealing), it is a very useful technique. Here's a good video demonstrating the method:
Wow, great work and result on that Hadrian! I would never have imagined the OP coin could end up looking that good.
I just tried the baking soda and tinfoil trick on this little Tetrobol from Histiaia that had ugly (IMO) black deposits. Distilled water and brushing wasn't cutting it. I have to say it worked well - my overexposed cell phone "after" photos don't do it justice, but the deposits are gone, and the coin actually looks far better in-hand. I'll have to reshoot now with the SLR.
Great results @jb_depew that's a big improvement! I like those tetrobols, one was among the first few Greek silvers I bought. Often patina enhances a coin but in cases like these it is an eyesore, and really isn't too difficult to remove. I've seen many a purist harp on about how removing patina destroys the value and blah blah, but ancients are a different breed and often do need the tarnish removed to bring out the beauty. Being comfortable with the process helps open your eyes to opportunities others might overlook.
I have just used straight ammonia on some of my denarius( I have heard if you just use original windex and use a tooth brush it can come out okay . ( if they have a dull gray tint to them) and polish it with a soft cloth. it can come out nice. I like the bamboo skewer idea- the wood wouldn't scratch the silver yet clean all the nooks and crannies.
Was looking for info about cleaning silver coins and saw your thread and the OP message. Really impressive, congrats, your denarius is awesome, fantastic job! Also the one posted by @jb_depew looks great. After watching the video DIY - Cleaning Silver, I felt encouraged to try it on a modern silver coin (from 1919, 0.900 silver), which had a lot of black something (I was so carried away that I didn't think about taking a picture). The end result is really impressive, all the black something is gone and the coin looks great. Thank you so much for sharing this information, really really helpful! Just have a question, do you know what could happen to a coin if the aluminium foil is not used? I poured hot water into a steel pan, set the coin into the water and washing soda on top of the coin, but I completely forgot to put an aluminium foil into the pan However, the water with the carbonate soda (washing soda) was completely brownish after I removed the coin and the coin looks just great.
Does the electrolysis process also remove some silver, or is it just foreign matter like sulfur that comes off?
I bought this one from John Anthony. It had the molten black when I got it, but I was able to clean it easy enough using lemon juice.
Thanks, it's interesting to see this thread resurrected. I'm not a chemist but figure that the Iron also has a stronger attraction to the sulfur and allowed the galvanic reaction/reduction to take place. I'd guess the brown solution was from the precipitated iron sulfide, same stuff as pyrite. In the future use a glass or nonreactive vessel as the iron might stain the coins. As far as I understand the actual direct current electrolysis is a bit more powerful and can harm coins if one is not careful. The aluminum galvanic reaction is more gentle and strips the sulfur, but the disassociated silver atoms that were part of the sulfide crud won't re-attach to the cleaned surface. This isn't really a big issue unless the coin is completely black and has a thick layer of the sulfide, in which case you'll be left with a "frosty" rough surfaced coin that probably will look worse than it did with the sulfide shell. Learned that the hard way with a hemidrachm of Parion. Looks great, much better definition and eye appeal! On the topic of cleaning coins, I got a 20x binocular microscope and a diamond-coated needle cleaning tool this past week and have been having a ball cleaning/refining some ancient bronzes I've had kicking around. It truly has opened my eyes to the possibilities of buying dirty bronze coins for good prices and turning them into gems. A bronze of Kassander in particular has turned into an absolutely amazing minty beauty that would sell for many times what I paid, I'm so happy with it . I'll post a thread with the results soon, though I was too excited to start cleaning and lack before-pics of many of 'em.
