Round 13 - before and after - Daniel Stewart

[Daniel Stewart]

Hi Folks,

Here are my before and after pictures and attempts at attribution.

Good luck to all.

Dan
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#1
I was unable to attribute this coin. There is a bare head, facing right, on each side but the
coin is very worn and no trace of inscriptions is visible. I have a hunch the coin is republican.

AE21
6.60 gm, 21 mm, die axis: 0
obverse: bare head, right.
reverse: bare head, right.

#2
This coin cleaned easily with just soaking and brushing. However, corrosion and the obvious
bronze disease had removed any inscription except for the regnal year symbols on the reverse. The
remaining  bit of green on the obverse is very hard and I think it is malachite.

Diocletian, billon tetradrachm, Alexandria, 288-289
6.28 gm, 18 mm, die axis: 0
obverse: Emperor, bust right, laureate, draped, cuirassed (?--the Wildwinds example is cuirassed
                but the cuirass is not visible in this example).
reverse: Eagle standing right with wreath in beak,
               star in upper left field, palm branch below star,
               L in left field,  in right field (Year 5)
Attribution from a very similar coin in Wildwinds--Milne 4920

#3
This coin was heavily encrusted and the crust showed no sign of surrender after long soaks.
I resorted to a very brief (about 30 seconds at 12 V) electrolysis--mea maxima culpa.
Much of the crust fell away and the rest was removed with a brass brush. The small areas of metal
showing through the brown patina resulted from the brushing, not the electrolysis.
The obverse and reverse of the coin were incorrectly labelled in the "before" pictures.

Ptolemy VI Philometor (the FORVM catalog presents similar coins as Ptolemy VI Philometer/Ptolemy VIII
with the join reign symbolized by the two eagles on the reverse), diobol, struck 180-176 BCE.
8.66 gm, 20 mm, die axis: 0
obverse: Zeus Ammon, head right, laureate.
reverse: Two eagles standing left on thunderbolts.
Wildwinds lists coins of this type as Svoronos 1423-1426.

The next three coins--all of Constantius II--had a kind of hard grey mud on them, similar to a desert patina.
They were cleaned by soaking followed by very light brushing and then careful scraping with a scalpel
to reveal images and inscriptions.

#4
Constantius II, AE16, Thessalonica
2.66 gm, 16 mm, die axis: 0
obverse: Constantius II, bust right, pearl diadem, draped, cuirassed,
                DN CONSTAN - (TIVS PF AVG) -- (bracketed letters are not visible)
reverse: Roman soldier spearing fallen horseman,
               (FEL TEMP REP)ARATIO
exergue: SMTS
Helvetica gives the RIC reference for this type of coin as Thessalonica 189 with a number of variants.
The mintmark here is incomplete and the soldier's head with its telltale headgear is missing.

#5
Constantius II, AE16, Nicomedia
1.63 gm, 16 mm, die axis: 0
obverse: Constantius II, bust right, the details of headdress are not clear, draped,
                (DN CONSTAN - T) IVS PF AVG
reverse:  Roman soldier spearing fallen horseman,
                (FEL TEMP REPARATIO)
exergue: SMNS
Depending on details that are not visible on the coin, Helvetica gives RIC references from Nicomedia 84
to Nicomedia 111 for coins of this type. The bust appears to be bare-headed but all the bare-headed coins
listed for this emperor and type have an obverse inscription ending in NOB CAES. The portrait is not clear
enough to resolve the question

#6
Constantius II, AE13
1.46 gm, 13 mm, die axis: 0
obverse: Constantius II, head right, pearl diadem
                (DN CONSTAN-) TIVS PF AVG
reverse: VOT XX MVLT XXX in four lines within a wreath
The mintmark is no longer visible. According to Helvetica, "vota" coins of this type were minted in
 Alexandria, Antioch, Cyzicus, Heraclea, and Nicomedia. 

[adam r]

Hi Daniel,

Great job on these coins.  I'm new to the hobby of cleaning coins but have acquired my first set of 10 coins very similar to your #3.

Mine have been soaking in deionized water for about a week and I'm making some progress with mechanical scrubbing with nylon.  It seems you feel electrolysis was a mistake and it is something I'm not interested in, but can you recommend a course of action you feel may have yielded better results?

In addition, in the same lot I have coins that are heavily encrusted with a dark blue mineralization.  Any tips on how to remove that?  I'm afraid that I may strip the patina or, worse, any detail below.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Adam

[areich]

Dan, I think you did the best you could but it wasn't a very good lot.

[Daniel Stewart]

Hi Daniel,

Great job on these coins.  I'm new to the hobby of cleaning coins but have acquired my first set of 10 coins very similar to your #3.

Mine have been soaking in deionized water for about a week and I'm making some progress with mechanical scrubbing with nylon.  It seems you feel electrolysis was a mistake and it is something I'm not interested in, but can you recommend a course of action you feel may have yielded better results?

In addition, in the same lot I have coins that are heavily encrusted with a dark blue mineralization.  Any tips on how to remove that?  I'm afraid that I may strip the patina or, worse, any detail below.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Adam

Adam,

If you look around the board you will see that the topic of electrolysis can produce heated debate so I was being a little ironic with the mea maxima culpa. I believe electrolysis has a place in cleaning ancient coins; but you have to be very careful. I don't think the electrolysis was a mistake with that coin but once you do it you never quite know whether a little more patience with a gentler method might have paid off. If the coins you have are heavily encrusted Ptolemy Philometers like mine was and you don't want to zap them, you could continue with the soak/brush routine and see what happens. You can also carefully pick away at the encrustation with a dental pick or just a push-pin and sometimes big chunks of crust will come off.

Without a photograph I'm not sure what kind of mineralization you refer to. With some coins the patina is very thick and hard (and attractive) and looks a bit like mineralization (I suppose that technically it IS mineralization). In the case of my Alexandrian tet there is a bit of very hard mineralization that I left alone because (a) I don't know how to get it off, and (b) I think it looks good.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[Daniel Stewart]

Dan, I think you did the best you could but it wasn't a very good lot.

Andreas,

It's nice of you to say so (and I guess I was spoiled by the luck I had with my very first effort when the coins turned out so well and I won the poll).

I wanted to say that I think the selection of coins for this round made things fairer--everyone got coins of the same types and condition (more or less) so the contest is more about how well the coins are cleaned and not so much about being lucky. It's a great deal--5 or 6 interesting coins and the fun and aggravation of cleaning and attributing --all for the price of a bottle of whiskey.

Dan