Featured Lot of 91 uncleaned large bronze coins - before and after

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by singig, Jun 25, 2020.

  1. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    You might consider electrolysis rather than lye for the heavily encrusted coins. It's less corrosive, although it will remove the patina. But over time, the coins will repatinate of their own accord; you won't need an artificial patina.
     
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  3. Inspector43

    Inspector43 Celebrating 75 Years Active Collecting Supporter

    That is my direction. Find coins, clean them, identify them and find another batch. I'm not interested in buying cleaned coins or selling mine. Just collect.
     
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  4. TIF

    TIF Always learning.

    Excellent work, @singig! Impressive :)
     
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  5. CoinDoctorYT

    CoinDoctorYT Well-Known Member

    how long do you soak it in lye. I want to try this
     
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  6. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    Usually overnight for the ones that are really bad.

    Do beware however, that you can either end up with something that looks great like this, where you get 90% of corrosion off and get a great looking coin:
    1.jpg
    2.JPG


    Or something that does not work out that well, and strips patina away leaving pockmarks:
    3.jpg
    4.JPG

    Sometimes, you end up with really funky colors that you really can't even out:
    7.JPG
    5.JPG
     
  7. singig

    singig Well-Known Member

    The chosen method depends of the coin surface type : for the ones with green fragile patina (like the Vespasian's dupondius) I use only water , bamboo sticks , a metal pick and wax. If the patina is quite strong I use also a plastic brush.

    The only acid solution I use is apple cider vinegar , I found that is less aggressive for the coin than the lemon juice (as example). I use vinegar only to remove hard encrusted deposits from coins with strong metal surface(like the A.Severus sestertius), you have to test before how the coin reacts for 30 minutes , if the results are good go for 2 hours. After 2 hours I use bamboo sticks or the metal pick to remove the encrusted dirt , plus brushed under water. I repeat the process for as long as necessary.
     
  8. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    I’ll have to try that vinegar next time. I just went through a batch of small coins I put in lye. 1 of the 30 coins actually turned out well, the rest sort of died a slow and nasty death
     
  9. singig

    singig Well-Known Member

    hotwheelsearl, excellent result with your first coin !
     
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  10. ominus1

    ominus1 Well-Known Member

    ..yeah but....lQQk at all the fun you had...not to mention education & with your thread being "FEATURED" too!>>:D
     
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  11. singig

    singig Well-Known Member

    ancient coins are all different, you have to choose a suitable cleaning method for each one
     
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  12. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    Thanks! I surprised myself too. I think it has to do with the type of encrustations/ corrosion.

    For encrustations that appear to be solely mud/rocks or whatever, then distilled water works.

    For encrustations that are surface level only, and the coin itself is strong (like the first coin) then lye seems to work well.

    for encrustations that go all the way down into the coin medium, lye does NOT work.
    I’m still learning every day. My recent batch was 99% failure :(
     
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  13. singig

    singig Well-Known Member

    Marcus Aurelius AE Sestertius. 163-164 AD. RIC 861
    M AVREL ANTONINVS AVG ARMENIACVS P M, laureate head right /
    TR P XVIII IMP II COS III S-C, Mars standing right holding spear and resting hand on shield.
    ma1 .jpg
    ma1-o .jpg
    ma1-r.jpg
     
  14. singig

    singig Well-Known Member

    Antoninus Pius AE Sestertius. RIC 916
    ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XVII, laureate head right /
    LIBERTAS COS III S-C, Libertas standing, head right, holding cap.
    ap5 .jpg
     
  15. singig

    singig Well-Known Member

    Thank you !
     
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  16. singig

    singig Well-Known Member

    Exactly, I do not regret it at all , just for this reason.
    To be honest, this spring, with the last 200$ for buying coins I really wanted to buy a Nerva sestertius (to be cleaned , photo below)
    Unfortunately I lost the auction(sold for 201$) and to console myself I thought what would it be to buy 91 coins for the price of one :)
     

    Attached Files:

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  17. Aaron Apfel

    Aaron Apfel Active Member

    I might give apple cider vinegar a go instead of lye for my heavily encrusted coins. It's funny how people all over the internet state to never use vinegar or any kind of acidic solution to clean ancient coins, yet you obviously got good results and I've seen lye produce good results on this forum time and time again. Honestly, if you have a crusty that just isn't going to clean up with distilled water and mechanical removal, a brief bath in an acidic solution is better than just leaving it all crusty.

    Anyway, looks like you got some pretty decent coins in there, nice!
     
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  18. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    My thoughts exactly. Your heavily encrusted coin is worth pretty much nothing.
    Cleaned, it has the potential to be worth something.
    Something > Nothing
    So I think the math works out.
     
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  19. Aaron Apfel

    Aaron Apfel Active Member

    Yep I totally agree. In the past I've accidentally scratched the coin or messed up the patina on crusty coins using metal picks in an attempt to get through rock solid crust. An acidic solution would have produced better results!
     
  20. singig

    singig Well-Known Member

    my opinion too ,
    I will give you an example (the coin is not from this lot), someone has kept this coin for more than 50 years(it has old label) in his collection without seeing any details on the obverse or even the reverse. I would have liked to send him the picture.
    domit saec.jpg
    domit saec-o.jpg domit saec-r.jpg
    Domitian As. AD 88. RIC 623
    IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P VIII CENS PER P P, laureate head right /
    COS XIIII LVD SAEC FEC, Domitian standing left, sacrificing from patera over garlanded altar, two attendants standing right, playing lyre and pan-pipes before him, hexastyle temple in background, with wreath in pediment. SC in ex.
     
  21. singig

    singig Well-Known Member

    Aelius Caesar AE As. 9.1 g
    L AELIVS CAESAR, bare head right /
    TR POT COS II S-C, Spes standing left, holding flower and lifting skirt.
    aelius.jpg aelius-o.jpg
     
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