Ave!
Raymond,
I'm going to take a pass on the Greeks. You would think that they would be the same as Roman, but I haven't found that to be true. Perhaps I've tried with the wrong Greeks, i.e., coins that were unlikely to improve anyway, no matter what I did.
I think Kevin Sandes has had more success with Greeks, esp Black Sea colonies, than anyone I know. He's the guy for input on this one -- a Greek coin in an uncleaned batch give me the willies.
Mark
Speak of the Devil, and up he jumps!
Ray, Mark's right on the
money - Cleaning
Greeks is another ball of wax, eh? Unlike
Roman Ae coins that tend to have a certain mix of copper/tin (yes, I know that is a very broad statement), early Greek Ae coins were all over the place when it came to the
alloy mixture. Hense, cleaning
Greek coins is always an adventure.
See Below.
As seen, these
Greek coins appear in all sorts of different conditions. I'd begin by dry cleaning, just a common
dental pick. NO BOILS! Too many of these coins have a very dry/brittle
patina that will be removed/softened by boils or even distilled water soaks.
Each coin needs to judged on an individual basis. Probe the surface of each coin. What my little experience has shown is that that mechanical cleaning for these coins works best. For whatever reason, I have never found one ancient Greek issue that responded well to electroysis.
Kevin
