This adventure is over 6 months in the making, sort of. This coin is actually the first ancient coin I ever attempted to clean. The coin was so heavily encrusted that there was absolutely no way to get this off without major intervention. There was a very fine patina underneath everything, which made me set this aside for cleaning. At the time, I had no idea what to do, at all. I just mixed up some sodium hydroxide and dunked this in the solution overnight. After the chemical dunk, I failed to actively mechanically clean any part of it, leading to a rather nasty, pitted, and oxidized appearance. Not knowing any better, I applied a bunch of green, and black Jax Patina Restorer, and slopped some Renaissance Wax over it. This led to a very uneven appearance, which was rather unattractive. I left the coin in this state for 6 months, until now, when I decided to try again with my new wealth of knowledge. I decided to strip the coin as much as possible to even out the end result for a (hopefully) more pleasant appearance. This time, my method was as follows: 1. Sodium hydroxide dunk to remove mineral encrustations. 2. Vinegar to remove blue/green oxides that showed up. 3. Mechanical cleaning to get most of the minerals off. 4. Sodium thiosulfate to get rid of the reddish brown iron oxides. 5. Final mechanical treatment 6. Jax Black Patina 7. Ren Wax Despite the rather brown look in the pics, in-hand it looks much darker. I think my new result is pretty nice. What are your thoughts?
You turned something I would have considered unsalvageable into a coin that is attributable and much more attractive.
At least now it is identifiable if not beautiful. There is a year date ANx in exergue. Can you make out the year? I don't think this is a really common coin but the year date would help if it can be read.
Thanks! I appreciate the kind words. I know cleaning isn’t for everybody, but the way I see it: it’s either the slag heap or the chemical dunk. At least this way I get something I can look at and enjoy
That is what I hoped you would say. RPC online lists two of these but only one is photographed. Have you IDed it yet? Don't follow this link until you have tried without it. https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/search/browse?q=philip+ii+dacia+an+iii Die duplicate!
I ended up in the same place! First I went on Wildwinds Philip I page where I was unsuccessful in finding the right size and legend breaks, and the head didn't look right. So then, I went to the Philip II page, and saw some heads that look a bit closer, but still no super close matches. So then I went to acsearch and found about a thousand hits, so tried RPC and there it was! https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/2406 Philip II after all!
You took something that was basically junk and turned it into a decent coin. I like seeing that bit of history restored. Your posts are always informative. Thanks for sharing
