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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 31824, member: 57463&quot;]Salve!&nbsp; <b>The coins <u>cannot</u> be cleaned quickly.</b>&nbsp; You might be able to get much of the dirt off with a toothbrush, but mostly, people soak ancients in olive oil and wait months.&nbsp; Some people wear diopters (magnifying glasses) and use a dental pick, toothpick, or rose thorn, and it still takes hours or longer to clean the coin without damaging it.&nbsp; Kids do not have that kind of patience.</p><p><br /></p><p>Minting histories include <i>The Coin Makers</i> by Becker.&nbsp; Many other books, especially about ancient coins, do share what little we know.&nbsp; Basically, the &quot;heads&quot; side was cut into an anvil and the &quot;tails&quot; side was the driving die.&nbsp; By Roman Imperial times, we think that a &quot;clamshell&quot; device with both dies was more common.</p><p><br /></p><p>D G DEF FID R is one thing, but E PLURIBUS UNUM is another.&nbsp; Also, in one of my high school classrooms, there was the Preamble to the Constitution with the Latin-based words in red. For coins, that would include LIBERTY and UNITED STATES (of) AMERICA.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Semper Vale![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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