Any tips on how you clean the coins or silver maintenance tips?
Ancient Coin Cleaning
Welcome to our community dedicated to the meticulous and rewarding art of cleaning ancient Roman coins. Here, we celebrate the patience and precision it takes to restore these historic treasures to their former glory. Whether you're a seasoned numismatist or a beginner just starting with your first crusty coin, you'll find a wealth of knowledge, tips, and support from our community. Learn about the gentle art of soaking coins in distilled water, the use of tools like toothpicks and dental picks, and the importance of a steady hand and keen eye under the microscope. Join us as we delve into the layers of history, one coin at a time.
First thing to know is that ancient coins are different then the coins you are used too. The metal has combined with various elements in the ground and has minerialized. It's delicate and cleaning requires a lot of patience and care. Without a whole suite of tools and experience at your back there is only a few safe things that can be done. Soaking the coin in distilled water is really the only way you can soften encrustations without damaging the coin itself. Then using something softer than the delicate coin to gently rub the dirt off one layer at a time. Toothpicks or bamboo skewers are great for this. Spend no more than 10mins at a time working on the coin before returning it to the distilled water and coming back another day. Change the water out every few days to once a week or so. This method will take months... Once you invest in a binocular microscope that is when the hobby kicks itself into high gear and you can use better tools.
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. What types of coins do you typically find in a bag? How did you get started in this?
Wow someone found the community! :-D Welcome. I got started in the hobby when I watched a video on Reddit of a time lapse of someone cleaning an ancient roman coin. I didn't save it and have yet to find it again despite looking a few times. I was fascinated by it and started reading up on the subject. I didn't want to start because I was afraid of destroying a piece of history. Then I found the 1/2 lb bag of practice coins that promised guilt free entry into the hobby. 95% of the coins were Roman because they're apparently very prolific. I did find a coin that was paid to the crusaders. It lacks so much detail i haven't been able to identify it outside figuring out its from the crusades. There were a few other non-roman coins but not in good enough shape that I was able to figure out what they are, outside of seeing they don't look like roman coins.
I used to clean coins, but I didn't have the patience you clearly have :D These days I only buy coins on auctions, but some of my favourite collectors are also extremely talented coin cleaners.
I also wanted to let you guys know about the more generally focused Ancient Coins community I am starting up. Give it a spin if you feel like it, the hobbies are of course separate but related.
Welcome :-) I've joined your community and look forward to posting there for some attribution help in the future. I was a lurker sometimes poster on the Reddit ancient coins subreddit, but I never really felt welcome because coin cleaning is generally negatively received there (with occasional exceptions). I can understand why because there is no shortage of people that buy ancients that are already cleaned and want to clean them, leading to an over cleaned coin at best and a destroyed one at worst. If you get those guys there send em here and we can reassure them that the coin is already clean. Maybe they'll see examples of actually dirty coins that need cleaning and see that theirs is in good shape.
Coin cleaning, when done right, is absolutely an art form. It's just that almost no-one does it right :D
You should check out Romanorum Coins on instagram, it's run by a friend of mine who is just fantastic at cleaning coins.
Woah! Nice, thanks for the link. I bought his book. :-) looks like his store has some great tools too, I already have several of them but there are others I don't already have that could prove very useful. Thank you.