This was pure blank on both sides when I started. I'm trying to get to just silver but don't think I can. I think just some smoothing will do. Comments always accepted.
it's a silvered bronze coin with only patches of silvering left, if you keep poking at it, there will be less silvering.
I found that out as soon as I started. But, it needed some cleaning. There is still silver under that dirt but I am letting it remain as is. Very little has been removed. I still need to ID it. Thanks for the feedback.
Reminds me of the guy who had a painting over a photograph and he was trying to find the Rembrandt underneath.
Actually the silvering is pretty robust. It might stand up to soaking and brushing, but picking is a little too much.
Would acetone be too much for it? I've been soaking it for a few days and then removing a small amount. Trying to avoid the silver.
All ancient coins have a point below which removing more material will make the coin worse rather than better. On silvered coins with a silver wash that was a fraction of a millimeter thick, this point is very hard to find. This coin has already passed the point of cleaning. You might find it better looking if all of the silver were gone but the chance of reversing what has already been lost is zero. It has already lost most of the coin surface on which the silvering once rested. Those places are not going to improve. The photo shows a coin with the dirt removed and much excavation into the body of the coin. Here is a fact we do not like to face: Professionals who handle thousands of newly found coins make their living looking at lumps and deciding which ones are likely to clean up into a nice coin and which ones should be sold off to people who want to try themselves and hope for a miracle. They make some mistakes but not as many as you would like. Here on Coin Talk, we have had hundreds of threads showing the results of members having fun trying their hand at cleaning. Their results would be better if they had a random selection of found coins completely unsorted but there is no such things as unsorted finds. Those advertised as such may not have been sorted by their current owner but the people who found the coins, at a minimum, separated the best from the worst before wholesaling them to a broker who can ID coins with his fingers better than many of us can with all the resources available to us. The important thing about cleaning is having a good grip on when to stop and when further action will help. Cleaning coins can be fun but those amateurs who are happy with their results tend to be relying on their own definition of what is good rather than absolute perfection. Your coin has a different mintmark and you obverse legend includes one additional title. Otherwise, it is similar to the one below.
@dougsmit Thanks for the feedback. I can still see silver through the thin dirt. But think I should stop. I still need to find out the mint mark. Must be gentle though. This coin started as a brown blank.
I finished the attributes of this coin and find as follows. The photo and info attached are from a Wildwinds page. Licinius I, AE Follis. Obv: IMP LIC-INIVS AVG, helmeted, cuirassed bust right Rev: VIRTVS-EXERCIT, Standard inscribed VOT / X in two lines standing on ground, captive seated on either side. S-F across fields. Mintmark: AQS. RIC VI Aquileia 40 unlisted obv legend, rated R2. Note: This obverse legend ending in AVG instead of "PF AVG" is not listed in RIC for this series. However, in view of the fact that the RIC 39 here on Wildwinds has a similar short legend, one could presume that the ..P F AVG legend is an error in RIC. Note no. 51 on page 400 of RIC VI mentions that the short obverse legend had been recorded by Dattari, however this note refers to the "VOT XX on banner" type, not the VOT X type. Contributed by Dane for George Clegg (biggyg2), October 2007
It is indeed an error in RIC...these coins for Licinius all have the short legend IMP LICINIVS AVG. Even the plate coin in RIC VII for Aquileia 39 shows the short legend despite the listing claiming the long legend.
