Hi, I got an uncleaned lot of ancient coins, looking over it again today, I saw a thick coin, and upon closer inspection, I saw that this was a ancient greek coin. I can make out the features on the obverse, its a man with a crown or radiate bust. But on the reverse its completely indistinguishable. Can anyone offer me some advice as to how to clean the reverse? And if someone could I.D. the coin, that would be great too. Thanks in advance, Peter Z
I'm terrible at cleaning coins, so I won't give any advice. There are others on this forum who will be able to advise you on that. If that is a radiate crown, with the reverse looking like a cornucopia, it may be something like this coin, although it may not be the same coin: ALEXANDER II ZABINAS AE22 OBVERSE: Radiate and diademed head right REVERSE: �'ΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ�"ΡΟΥ, Double cornucopia; A-Π flanking, star to lower left Struck at Antioch, Series 5 125-22 BC 8.2g, 22mm SC 2237
I am NOT a Greek coin expert, so take this with a grain of salt, but suppose you rotate the reverse 90 degrees clockwise: It might be a hound or some sort of animal running right (with its head and forepaws off the flan), similar to this Roman Republican coin:
I don't think there is that much cleaning to be accomplished with your coin. It looks like someone has already cleaned it. There looks to be a little dirt in the lower areas of the obverse, but nothing that would help in identifying the coin if removed. Sometimes you can uncover more detail by stripping off the patina with electrolysis, but nothing can replace detail that has already been worn away, which appears to be the case with your coin. I don't think you'd lose much by zapping it, but I don't think you'd gain much, either.
