Dogsward's Gallery

[Dogswards]

Hey, I've had a small coin collection for a while, but just got into uncleaned/ ancient coins. I'll add to this post whenever I'm done with a coin (if it's worth showing off).

First off, a Constantine bronze coin:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7986

The details on this one are by far the best of the batch I got (for now). It cleaned wonderfully, just needing a soak and some elbow grease with a toothbrush. Most of the others are far dirtier, so those might take a while.

Any input is much appreciated, as I am new at this. Did I clean it improperly, is there a better way to take a photo, etc? Let me know, I'd appreciate it.

[v-drome]

Hi D, and welcome to Forum.  Nice looking coin!  A "before" photo helps us for deciding the best way to clean, (or not clean, if there is a decent patina, already).  There is a lot of advice offered in the cleaning section on the Forum board.  Also, there are online sites that allow you to put two photos together so you can have the front and back on the same photo if you want to.  Another easy way I use on my IMAC is to line up both photos and use the GRAB app to select the area of the screen I want to copy.  You can adjust the size and type of the file as needed.  I usually record to TIFF (large file) and save it in a dedicated folder, and then export or resize the composite photo to a smaller jpg file (around 250-350KB) before uploading to Forum.  Good luck!

[Jay GT4]

Always nice to have new galleries.  Welcome!

[Dogswards]

Hi D, and welcome to Forum.  Nice looking coin!  A "before" photo helps us for deciding the best way to clean, (or not clean, if there is a decent patina, already).  There is a lot of advice offered in the cleaning section on the Forum board.  Also, there are online sites that allow you to put two photos together so you can have the front and back on the same photo if you want to.  Another easy way I use on my IMAC is to line up both photos and use the GRAB app to select the area of the screen I want to copy.  You can adjust the size and type of the file as needed.  I usually record to TIFF (large file) and save it in a dedicated folder, and then export or resize the composite photo to a smaller jpg file (around 250-350KB) before uploading to Forum.  Good luck!

Thank you, this is a lot of very good information. For some reason combining both photos in the editor into 1 never occurred to me, I thought there was a setting I was missing on the website. I did read through the cleaning section, and there's a lot of good information there. Unfortunately, it did not occur to me to take a photo of the coins pre-cleaning, but here's photos of them at their current state (minus the two I consider to be clean enough):

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=185283
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=185282

If I ever need help with a specific coin, I'll take a better individual photo and post in the appropriate forum section. I'm pretty happy with this (first ever) batch. Most of them have noticeable details even at this early stage. Annoyingly though, I ordered mostly roman coins but also 2 greek and 2 medievals, and they all came packed together. I predict this will cause some headaches with identification.

Always nice to have new galleries.  Welcome!

Thank you for the welcome!

On to the next coin:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=185280

I believe this is a Byzantine decanummium from the Antioch mint, with Justin II and Sophia. This one is not much of a looker, with a lot of missing detail on the obverse. I am however, pretty happy with the reverse, as all the lettering is nice and clear. I could have cleaned it a bit further, but I think this is as much detail as will come out of it.

[Virgil H]

It looks like you got the combining images thing going. Those two you have posted are very nice. Welcome.

Virgil