My best ancient coin cleaning attempts

I have been cleaning ancients for about 2 years. I would like to post what I think are my best jobs. This first coin is listed in RIC VII Cyzicus 113 as contributed by me (David Zachmeyer). I have about 150 cleaned, identified, cataloged and stored as of the end of this year. Thanks for all the help from CT members.

 

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@Inspector 43,

You did a great job! How did you clean them ?

A healty 2023 to you and yours.

sky92880

 

Nice coins!
You should post a before/after kinda thing if you have the photos...

 

Some of them I do. These have all been posted as I finished them. But, I will look through my files to see if I can find them. Thanks for the feedback.

 

Nice Job

 

Nice job. I love cleaning coins

 

Each one is a little different. I soak all the loose stuff off first. Then a little bit at a time until I can identify the coin. Once I am sure of the coin I print a copy out of an on-line database. Enlarge the photo and use it as a guide to remove as much accumulation as I can without damage to the coin. This does involve some mechanical cleaning and lots of time.

 

Nice work! Those coins are very appealing.

 

Here are photos of a Philip I I have before and after. What I ended up with was not as nice as some I showed above.


Top is before and bottom is final.

 

Good job. I like when I can see how bad it was in the beginning....

 

Most of mine raw coins were in very bad condition. I always tried to find some that were unrecognizable. I didn't always take the time to link before and after. Here is a sample of a lot I photographed before I started on them. These are typical of what I worked with.

 

Excellent work @Inspector43
I am attempting my first ever cleaning right now. This Gordian III, AR Antoninianus was in a lot I received yesterday. My only goal is tio be able to attribute it, and it is proving to be a lot of fun. So far I have done the obverse and here is before and after

 

Looking good @expat. I'd like to see the other side.

 

Working on the reverse tomorrow although it is very worn and corroded. Looking forward to it, possibly it is Victory with globe and wreath. We will see

 

As I suspected, very worn and corroded under whatever that thick, hard black stuff was! But there was enough detail left to attribute the coin. Regardless of the condition, I like it. Here are the before and after reverse. Attribution is therefore

Gordian III AR Antoninianus. Rome 239 CE. 4.13gr, 22mm.
IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AVG, radiate, draped bust right / P M TR P II COS P P, Victory advancing left with wreath & palm.
RIC IV Gordian III,19, RSC 199, Sear 8365

 

@expat Is that bronze with silvering?

 

As far as I can ascertain, these antonininanii still had a good proportion of silver in the alloy and is stated as a silver, not silvered, composition in Ocre.

 

I bought an uncleaned lot a few years ago. Most were slugs but a few turned out ok. However, I took the slugs and stored them in a ziplock in a drawer and forgot about them. Found them recently and bronze disease has taken over the whole bag of about 20 coins. Blue powdery stuff everywhere. Live and learn.

 

I have had what I thought were slugs and after some work found very desirable coins. Not very nice coins but knowing what they are is part of the objective. And some slugs never get out of the slug stage.

 

I thought this Arab-Byzantine fals had bronze disease. It cleaned up nicely with distilled water and there are no signs of any redeveloping BD, so perhaps this is a case of just some light green deposits.

Before:



After: