Nice Pax sestertius of A.Pius

[Diederik]

The sestertii of Pius'COS III series are extremely handsome, so, when I saw this coin coming along, I thought: 'Let's put a little effort and TLC into this dirty bugger and see what we can do.'
The coin arrived today and giving it a first gentle brush, I noticed that the grub came off very easy, so I put it in the ultrasonic cleaner and after a few minutes it came out like the next picture.
Sometimes you have to believe in miracles

ANTONINVS AVG PI - VS PP TR P COS III laureate head right / PAX AVG, S - C Pax standing left, holding branch and cornucopiae. RIC 616, BMC 1265a, Cohen 589 and Strack 843, examples in Berlin, Paris and Vienna (this bust type).


Frans

[Diederik]

second picture

[okidoki]

Frans,

this is a very nice coin, do you have a picture before cleaning?

[okidoki]

very very nice indeed. 

[Ronald]

thats a nice one congratulations

[Nemonater]

    

[clueless]

Nice coin indeed 

My curiosity, what kind of fluid are you using with the ultrasonic cleaner ? Distilled water or some kind of mixture ?

Cheers,

Clueless

[Diederik]

Plain water, right from the tap!

Thanks, friends for all your kind comments!


Frans

[Charles S]

Really impressive cleaning job.   Until now I have been using olive oil for this type of cleaning but that takes weeks or months rather than minutes.  Is this ultrasonic cleaning method safe with natural patina ?

[Diederik]

Is this ultrasonic cleaning method safe with natural patina ?

If the patina is solid and not flaky, I don't see any danger for patina. It is only water stirred, but not shaken...


Frans

[SC]

wouldn't it actually be water shaken and not stirred.

Anyway nice job and coin.  Just to be clear did you have all the gunk removed before going in the ultrasonic or just a bit removed to see it was soft stuff?

Shawn

[Diederik]

[quotejust a bit removed to see it was soft stuff][/quote]  Exactly that! The whole operation took five minutes...


Frans

[clueless]

I wonder, if you did soak a coin in olive oil and then used an ultrasonic treatment on it, it probably would remove the stuff that the oil has loosened up, especially from the small details that otherwise are somewhat difficult and timeconsuming to clean without scratching the coin itself. Have you tried this ?

On silvered AEs this ought to be the ideal solution as long as the silvering isn't flaking.

Clueless

[Diederik]

Don't over-estimate the power of a simple ultrasonic device; it will indeed remove what's loose, but not much more. Tiny cavities in hair and beards, filled up are difficult to clean, perhaps here ultrasonic waves may help.


Frans