Author Topic: silvery?? two soldiers with standards (Read 1446 times)

lestabantam · « **on:** February 13, 2010, 04:28:11 pm »

This coin had been in soak for about a month, first in distilled water, then in olive oil with the thick black coating not moving for anything.

Today, in the exergue I saw a flash of "silver" appear, so I put it in lemon juice and scrubbed, then cola and scrubbed, and now I'm down to this. I can find no reference to a "two soldiers, two standards" in silver, but have read somewhere that a lot of the bronze coins were originally silvered... so the questions are...

1)Is this silvered, or silver or just a very pale bronze?
2)How should I proceed from here with it's cleaning?

If I've made a mistake and overcleaned do tell me, and tell me how I could have got the thick black coating off, there doesn't seem to be any patina beneath it.

Thanks for any help, I'm fairly new to this and keen to learn from my mistakes.

LB

areich · « **Reply #1 on:** February 13, 2010, 04:47:44 pm »

I only see overcleaned bronze. I don't know if it was the cola that did it or if it was 'pre-cleaned'.
There is nothing left to clean on this coin, maybe the 'thick black coating' was the patina?

I'm not saying this trying to make you feel bad, but this coin is dead. It's an ex-coin.

lestabantam · « **Reply #2 on:** February 13, 2010, 04:55:14 pm »

OK. Thanks for the swift response. It's the only coin i've tried this on, and I'll not try it again unless I'm damned sure that it is silver.

larry c · « **Reply #3 on:** February 13, 2010, 06:48:03 pm »

If it was silver plated and I'm not familar with this type of coin,
any soaking in chemicals or even in distilled water will remove plating.
They have to be carefully cleaned by mechanical means to have any hope
of saving them.

Scotvs Capitis · « **Reply #4 on:** February 13, 2010, 10:50:30 pm »

Actually this is what a coin looks like that has been zapped (elctrolysis) and scrubbed, but was not completely stripped in the process. What would remain in zapping (the black areas of your coin) would be black crud, sometimes very stubborn. This coin could be somewhat salvaged by toning it a bit with some sulfur-based gel like Dellars.

lestabantam · « **Reply #5 on:** February 14, 2010, 02:09:34 pm »

I've put the coin on one side for the day I might mess around with toning or re-darkening.

My spirits have been lifted today by uncovering and attributing a Romulus/Remus & she wolf commemerative with SMH