29mm Nightmare coin, is it even possible??

[David P7]

I picked up a few uncleaned coins, have some promising ones but this was in the pile, its 29 mm and looks like a coral reef.
Heavily encrusted and hard as a rock, even looks like some small rocks imbedded in it.
Is it even possible to clean this?

Cheers

[Ron C2]

Definitely cleanable with proper technique. DW soaks won't do it for that one. You'll need to mechanically clean it. Scalpel under microscope, I'd say.

You could initially and sparingly use sole lemon or lime juice on a q tip to loosen some outer layers, the neutralize in DW, to see if it helps before moving on to just scalpling.

[David P7]

Thanks,
So no miniature jack hammer then!
If it ever looks like a coin again i will post a pic.

[Ken W2]

Certainly worth attempting some soaking and mechanical cleaning by blade or diamond encrusted bit as Ron suggests, but ultimately that one may be for the methods of last result-- chemical stripping or electrolysis.