Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;hotwheelsearl, post: 4938745, member: 75143&quot;]Haha, those actual denarii are wonderfully rare and expensive, and I never expect to be able to afford one... I&#039;ll settle for 1/2 ant, a &quot;nominal denarius,&quot; if you will...</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for your kind comment! I certainly learned an interesting facet of chemicals: For some reason, Sodium Hydroxide does <i>not</i> entirely remove either a) horn silver or b) iron oxide.</p><p>This is strange, since NaOh is PH 13, while Sodium Thiosulfate is PH 7-9. Why would a harsher base have less of an impact on certain deposits than a milder base?</p><p><br /></p><p>Another thing I&#039;ve found, which may come in handy for brightening up the coin:</p><p>every silver coin I&#039;ve tossed in hydroxide comes out rather shiny silver, while every silver coin in thiosulfate comes out gray and dull.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can probably dunk this one into hydroxide for a short time (10 minutes?) and potentially recover some of the shininess.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, I&#039;ve learned that prolonged exposure to these chemicals actually will erode away details, sometimes considerably. If a coin had a weak strike to begin with, it could almost erode the details all the way off![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in