I’m thinking to a short article for
Forum, concerning uncleaned coins and –in particular- when it’s time to stop in the cleaning process, even if you are technically able to remove more dirt/encrustations/etc. (and this without damaging the coin).
The kind of cases I'd like to collect and show are the ones in which some kind of "desert
patina", ocra/white/red earthen fills on dark
patina or similar things actually highlight the details of a coin: this is a quite special case, but for a newbie it is better to see some example before starting cleaning too many coins, since it is very frustrating when you do a technically
good job and end up with a coin looking worst than before touching it!
Obviously I already have some idea and some image to propose from the coins I cleaned (or I did not clean, because I liked them dirty!), and I’m going to post them here also, as soon as they are in a more suitable format (right now they are in 1200 dpi format…), but I’d like any suggestion and I would really appreciate the possibility to put in the article some before/after pic on this subject or some coin you actually decided not to clean anymore, to show when it could be better to left some kind of “incrustations” on the coin to highlight details (or to avoid the risk of damaging it: see the case of
red spots on copper coins). Please, if you post your pics say also if you authorize me to use them in the article (naturally, I'll say that the image is courtesy of “Mr. X” and add your comments, if you want).
[Any link to relevant post in this topic is wellcome also, even if I'll try to look for them myself]
Thanks,
Federico