Hi All, I’m looking to get my son a little more interested in ancient coins. Between me and his Gramps we have assembled some great entry coins but all are modern. I think it would be cool to get some uncleaned coins, soak in olive oil, and see what we get (I’m sure it’s not as easy as that). Any advice on the most trust worthy place to purchase uncleaned ancients? Any help greatly appreciated.
I'm pretty bad at cleaning coins, but I can assure you based upon personal experience that olive oil will just be a slimy mess. Distilled water will probably be the way to go. I'm sure people more competent than I in the matter will chime in.
At one point I thought it would be fun to buy a lot of unclean coins to be cleaned; however, my experiences in these lots turned out to be disappointing. Although I did clean a very few common LRB, most of the lots I purchased was full of slugs and not worth my time.
If you have the means, I would advise to buy uncleaned silver ancient coins. Some of these can be bought in group lots of auctions (i.e. coins with deposits). Silver coins are easier to clean and more rewarding, both in terms of satisfaction and from a monetary perspective.
I guess you could try Noble Roman Coins. A little expansive but relatively okay. It’s definitely not as simple as the description says. I tend to give these an overnight soak in saturated lye solution and go from there.
Follow his interest, show and let him tell. Follow the leaders at CT ancients' collector's forum is a very good start. Good luck.
Here's just a few of the cleaning videos I found on youtube. I wish these were around when I did mine. The Art of Cleaning Roman Coins - YouTube Cleaning an Ancient Roman Coin: a Marcus Aurelius AE As from 145 A.D. - YouTube
I've posted this before. Of course each coin is different on one hand. Mostly I took from YT too but tried various methods. Electrolysis never worked for me and other sources do not recommend it. Again, this is for beginners and for coins 'without patina' and inexpensive ones. I gather that rare and expensive types should not be cleaned. First, I have a small rubber mat to place the coin on to keep it in place. Then as one YT source said: take an ordinary toothbrush, hacksaw it in more than half. Cut down the bristles in half. Smear toothpaste on the surface of the coin and I use "Barkeeper's Friend" or even a little dab of CLR on the brush too: AND brush and brush until your fingers fall off! You will see the centuries melt off with each rinse. Plenty of paper towels too. As I understand it now: Olive oil takes months or years to be effective-if you want to wait (and who does?). This method too requires patience and perseverance. Then comes the distilled water for bronze and re-cleanings as new exposure now sets off the bronze disease anew. At this point I have to stop as there are other opinions at this stage. For myself, I use a somewhat controversial and perhaps hazardous method of preservation which SHOULD NEVER be undertaken by minors and even adults must take certain precautions. It has worked out well for me though and in a future post sometime I will explain in more detail. Sometimes though after the 'distilled water' stage: other safe choices include soaking in acetone for a couple days and/or baking in the oven not higher than 150 degrees for around 10 minutes (to remove water), then lightly immerse in candle wax. As Marcus said: "Life is opinion".
Start with either tap water (use a final distilled water rinse) or distilled water, with or without soap. If you do use soap, make sure to rinse, rinse, rinse it thoroughly off. Toothbrush with bristles cut to half length helps.
If you’re lucky enough to find lots of uncleaned silver or billon coins, VERY long soaks in saturated sodium thiosulfate is the ONLY way to go.
