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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;jb_depew, post: 8268584, member: 88227&quot;]I received this Cappadocian drachm of Nero in the mail today and, not having much of an investment in the coin, figured I&#039;d take a stab at freeing it from its encrustation using my limited coin cleaning skills. As a starting point, I gave it a few short soaks in sodium thiosulphate to remove the horn silver (~5 mg in 30 ml hot water), picking away at it with a toothpick in between soaks. Following that, I was left with some hard red and green oxides, which were not responding to the previous method. I assumed these were iron/copper oxides. I took the coin to my jewelry workshop, where I keep a small crock pot of &quot;pickle&quot; (a mild acid) that I use to remove oxides from sterling silver jewelry. The pickling compound is Sparex #2, diluted in water, which is heated to speed up the oxide removal process. After a few short 3-4 minute soaks in the hot pickle, the remaining junk was easily removed with a toothpick and short bristled toothbrush.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin still suffers from rough surfaces, a flan crack, an ugly flan, an off-center strike, and crystallization, but at least it&#039;s free of the ugly oxides and horn silver it had before. If anyone has insight into what I did right or wrong in this cleaning process, I&#039;m all ears. This was just a fun trial for me, and I only had $60 on the line.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Before cleaning:</b></p><p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/MaJBSYD.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>After treating with sodium thiosulphate, before soaking in mild acid:</b></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/bJgcaw0.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>After soaking in mild acid:</b></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WXB9qQv.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><font size="3">Cappadocia, Caesarea-Eusebia, Nero AR drachm</font></p><p><font size="3">54-68 AD</font></p><p><font size="3">Struck RY 10 = 63-64 AD</font></p><p><font size="3">Obverse: NERO CLAVD DIVI CLAVD F CAESAR AVG GERMA; Laureate head of Nero right.</font></p><p><font size="3">Reverse: ET - I; Mount Argaios surmounted by statue of Sol-Helios, radiate, holding globe in his right hand and long scepter in his left.</font></p><p><font size="3">References: RPC I 3649; Sydenham 85; Henseler 63.</font></p><p><font size="3">20mm; 3.4g</font></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Feel free to post before/after cleaning photos, Roman provincial coins from Cappadocia, coins of Nero, or anything else you think is relevant.</p><p><br /></p><p>-Jeremy[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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