Surely not...

[Rich Beale]

An article on the excavation of ancient Amheida:

http://www.livescience.com/history/090715-amheida-excavation.html

"The archaeologists at Amheida apply dental tools,Brasso metal polish and gentler chemicals to hundreds of Roman coins"

BRASSO!! Unbelievable.

[SVLLAIMP]

That's just a bit cringe worthy.

[mwilson603]

Can scientists actually be struck off for misconduct? 

[ecoli]

Patina is really only important for collectors

[casata137ec]

I suspect that the "archaeologists" were nothing more than over excited grad students, for the most part. Ah well.

Chris

[slokind]

Patina protects metal and often, as we have described repeatedly in this Forvm, preserves fine detail.
Pat L.

[commodus]

Yes, Pat is correct.
So is ecoli.
We collectors recognize the value of patina. In my experience, few others do.

[mihali84]

It's a shame, you would think that even the amateur archaeologists would have some notion of Patina and its importance.  And for the senior archaeologists on the site, shame on them.  I feel that only those with intimate knowledge of Numismatics and its practices should be allowed to handle such finds.  Oh well, at least they didn't end up on the black market. 

[Jochen]

I know it sounds like a stupid question, but could it be possible that sometimes it is inevitable to remove the patina totally only to recognize the letters correctly? And without removing the patina it is not possibe to attribute the coin correctly? So that sometimes we have a contradiction between science and aesthetics?

Curious to here your opinions!

Best regards
Jochen

[commodus]

At times, buried coins are found fused together or, more often, fused into accretion. Either way, separation is required and that would, indeed, necessitate the removal of patina in the process. This is not always the case, of course, but it often is and could account for some of the cleaning.

[mihali84]

My opinion is that some coins would need a good cleaning off of any encrustations to simply identify the coin right out of the ground.  Of course the cleaning of coins is an accepted and necessary practice, but its the extent of the cleaning that is the issue.  In most cases the patina preserves any detail left on the coin and over-cleaning would remove that detail, as the underlying metal would be too corroded to clearly identify the coin.  It is something that a trained numismatic eye would know, whether it is necessary to remove ALL of the patina to identify the coin.  From an archaeologists point of view they might not understand that fact and try to get the coin down to the metal, there in lies the contradiction between science and aesthetics.

[Danny S. Jones]

My opinion is that some coins would need a good cleaning off of any encrustations to simply identify the coin right out of the ground.  Of course the cleaning of coins is an accepted and necessary practice, but its the extent of the cleaning that is the issue.  In most cases the patina preserves any detail left on the coin and over-cleaning would remove that detail, as the underlying metal would be too corroded to clearly identify the coin.  It is something that a trained numismatic eye would know, whether it is necessary to remove ALL of the patina to identify the coin.  From an archaeologists point of view they might not understand that fact and try to get the coin down to the metal, there in lies the contradiction between science and aesthetics.

Yet despite what those who are against private collection of antiquities say, ancient numismatics is more than aesthetics. It is an applied science just as much as archaeology or anthropology.

[Danny S. Jones]

 

At times, buried coins are found fused together or, more often, fused into accretion. Either way, separation is required and that would, indeed, necessitate the removal of patina in the process. This is not always the case, of course, but it often is and could account for some of the cleaning.

I posted a statement, and then went back and read the article again - and changed my post. Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge. We can't tell by the general statement in the article if they irreparably harmed any coins, even though brasso would be a definite no-no. Some coin patinas are way past saving. If they were able to get any info on a corroded coin that would otherwise be little more than a pitted slug, then I suppose that in the name of science...

[Dino]

I remember reading an article related to the preservarion of antiquities and patina.  A museum which used to preserve by removing all patina via electrolysis and then applying a protective coating anaylzed thosed objects after several years and compared them to those where the patina had been preserved.  The electrolyzed artifiacts had a much higher incedence of bronze disease than the other items.  I'll try to find the article if anyone is interested.

[Danny S. Jones]

Electrolysis ruins coins! I swore off of it a long time ago. I'd love to see that article.

[Dino]

Heres an excerpt from section 4 of the article.  Not exactly what I remembered with respect to bronze disease, but items treated with electrolysis did corrode  and often required re-treatment:

One of the primary reasons for the early stripping of bronzes was to rid them of chloride that causes bronze disease (Beale 1996). MFA records also state the following goals: to remove corrosion, to allow reshaping and reforming, and to reveal inscriptions. By the early 1980s notes in files begin to reflect ethical conflicts with such treatments, and reduction is now rarely used at the MFA. Its use on Egyptian artifacts in recent years has been restricted to local reduction using formic acid and aluminum foil for removal of remains of corrosion products from previously reduced objects.

Metals that have been reduced or stripped have often required re-treatment in later years due to tarnishing or corrosion of reactive, bright metal and the removal or renewal of protective coatings (discussed in sec. 4.7). Another problem that has been noted with a few chemically cleaned objects is corrosion connected with residual chemicals leaching out of the metal.
 

Here's a link to the whole article.  Quite interesting.

http://206.180.235.133/jaic/articles/jaic42-02-004_indx.html

[CzarMike]

Gah, it stings the nasal passage thinking about it.

[commodus]

Electrolysis ruins coins!

I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but I agree that it makes them less desirable.