uncleaned coins - before and after

Sorry, a bit late. But this coin has horn silver deposits on it and would greatly benefit from soaking in a sodium thiosulphate solution.

Also, a few of my recent cleaning projects, with a brief description:




For silver coins I find the iron oxide (ie rust) the most difficult to remove. It's extremely hard. I would probably have to use a stronger acid than I'm used to.

 

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Thanks for the tip! Now I gotta find some of the stuff...

 

Could this coin also benefit from cleaning?

 

I think it could benefit from cleaning, but it'd be very tough going... that green doesn't give up without a fight.

Edit: if you even did a little, I'd start only on the obverse bust and legend.

 

Bad photos but this Domitian denarius was bought from $9. It was covered with a black rocky crud. When I bought it, I could see good silver underneath so I was hoping the crud would come off. Anyway with several hours of picking, most of it did come off and revealed a pretty nice coin for the price.


Tools... a toothpick, fingernails and time.... there's still some discoloration I haven't tackled but may leave it like this. Sometimes, I wish I kept the crud on the coin as you don't see many sliver coins of this era left as-found.

 

The depositions on your coin are horn silver and should dissolve in sodium thiosulphate.

 

Is there a household name for that chemical? How risky (to myself and the coin) to use? Thanks!

 

I would try magic soup, it melts the green stuff.

 

If you search for horn silver and my name, you’ll find a lot of threads where I give a detailed walk through on the restoration of silver coins with HS

 

Fausta after a few lye baths:

 

It got a lot of the crispness and detail back. She's not hiding any more. I've been thinking about getting some lye for the occasional, more in-depth coin cleaning projects I have lye-ing around.

Edit: Here is the before. (I had to go hunting to find it. Saving others the hassle )

 

That red stuff is incredibly hard to scrape off.

 

I don't doubt it! I got a Claudius sestertius covered in red & green hard stuff with the plan to clean it. The green stuff wasn't too bad, dissolving with some work. I purchased some surgical scalpels to use that as I've heard of/seen some great results. But the red has been hard on my hands. I'm thinking lye might be the next step to see how productive it is.

Edit: Seller's before photos...

 

I wonder if rose spikes might help better than sharp object made of tougher metal than the coin?

 

I have used splinters of ebony left over from my woodworking phase to good result. Rose thorns are a lot easier to find.

 

I'm going to use them myself to see if what the toothbrush couldn't dislodge might be moved with some sharp thorns.

 

And Fausta after some fiddling with a rose thorn around the bust and between the letters:

 

Nice details , I didn't notice the two children before.
After the last bath keep the coin in water for a couple of days , the colour will get better.

 

I started to clean coins from this lot(30$) received yesterday. I bought it mainly for two coins : the rarest DIVO type of Carus DIVO CARO PERS(icvs) and for the Constantius I large follis.

I will post some results tomorrow.

Hadrian , Aurelian , Carus , Numerian , Severina?
Constans , Constantine I , ? , Constantius I

 

Constantius I
AE follis. Heraclea. 305-306 AD. RIC VI Heraclea 24a.
IMP C FL VAL CONSTANTIVS PF AVG, laureate head right / GENIO POPV-L-I ROMANI, Genius standing left, modius on head, naked except for chlamys over left shoulder, holding patera from which liquid flows, and cornucopiae. Mintmark: HTΓ
28 mm / 8.5 g