Numism > Help For the New Ancient Coin Collector
2 Questions - 1 on naming and 1 on polishing
(1/1)
Eddie K.:
Hi! I'm getting closer to the end of cleaning my first coin. My coin is a Julia Mamaea bronze coin from Nicaea during the reign of Severus Alexander. The spelling on my coin is IOVLIAMAMAIAAVG and it is a bust of her facing to the right. While the back has 3 wreathes on top of 3 solid dots in the middle and beneath the dots are NI-KA-IE-I(?)N. How exactly would I term the coin, for example one of the first roman republic coins on the shop is called "RP97564. Bronze AE 18, RPC I 1648 (11 spec.); AMNG III, p. 192, 12 & pl. XX, 13; Grant FITA 274; SNG Cop -; BMC Macedonia... (the rest is just describing the coin which I already mostly understand). How would I reference my own coin myself like that?
Second of all, is there a special type of wax/polish that I can use to polish my bronze (maybe even potential silver) coin that anyone would recommend?
Thank you for reading this and if you need a picture of the coin (with my horrendous cleaning skills) feel free to ask and any other questions about my hilariously uneducated coin knowledge question!
Pekka K:
Sounds like RPC VI 3149: https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/3149
Pekka K
Anaximander:
Polishing: numismatists use Renaissance Wax, known in the trade as Renwax. It's available in two sizes. I ordered the smaller, and I will never use it all.
See the discussion here.
Eddie K.:
Sorry for the late response! Thank you both of you for the information, I will definitely be buying some Renaissance on my future coins. I may or may not have scratched the heck out of my first coin thinking I was scrapping at dirt, but in reality was scrapping at bronze. Will the Renaissance wax cover up my scratches or should I chemically remove the patina. I only ask that because I saw a post recently of someone who chemically removed their patina as a last resort due to how corroded it was, and it was given some good praise! I understand anything involving the removal of the patina is seen as a cardinal sin here so I'm just wondering if that is a viable option.
Also, while the RPC VI 3149 reverse is the same exact design as my coin, the obverse has slight variations such as instead of NI-K-AI-E :Greek_Omega: N mine is NI-KA-IE-IN. Does that significantly matter or is it safe to call my coin the RPC VI 3149 (I don't plan on selling at all).
Joe Sermarini:
FORVM sells Renaissance wax here.
It will do nothing to help with or hide scratches.
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