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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Plumbata, post: 3425172, member: 96864&quot;]Thanks, it&#039;s interesting to see this thread resurrected. I&#039;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&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;t re-attach to the cleaned surface. This isn&#039;t really a big issue unless the coin is completely black and has a thick layer of the sulfide, in which case you&#039;ll be left with a &quot;frosty&quot; 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.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Looks great, much better definition and eye appeal!</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;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&#039;m so happy with it <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />. I&#039;ll post a thread with the results soon, though I was too excited to start cleaning and lack before-pics of many of &#039;em.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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