FORVM`s Classical Numismatics Discussion Board
Numismatic and History Discussion Forums => Uncleaned Ancient Coin Discussion Forum => Topic started by: ancientone on June 10, 2014, 07:18:03 pm
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Greetings,
I finally felt confident enough to start working on a silver coin. It was in an awful state (looked like it had been at Pompeii) with what looked like lava melted onto the coin. I'm happy with the results, even in it's present condition.
Regards,
Charlie
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Nice work, Charlie.
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May I assume you used a slow manual method (pick etc.)?
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Thanks Nick!
ickster: I used a bamboo skewer, scalpel and ammonia soaks over a period of about a week. Probably could have gone longer but I was not sure about metal quality.
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;D +++ ;D
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Awesome.
Can I ask whether the ammonia was diluted and how long the soaks were?
Shawn
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Charlie,
The little divot at the top of the coin (right over his head) in the first picture seems to have gotten a little larger, post soak. Am I correct in assuming that this was just dirt or something, pre-soak, or or was there a chance that the coin's metal quality was uneven and the ammonia was eating away at it? (I'm just asking so I can file the info away for when I actually have a silver coin to clean.)
Regards,
-Tim
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otlichnik: No dilution so I watched very carefully for the first soak of about 3 minutes. After that I was ok with leaving it for longer periods working up to 1 to 3 hours. I've seen AR coins destroyed by ammonia so be sure of the silver quality before.
Tim: I am just noticing this too. Under magnification it looks like a piece chipped off. The flan is very thin at that point. I would attribute it to something I did rather than the ammonia.
Charlie