Hi,
I have come across this
Claudius Æ
Sestertius with
SPES AVGVSTA reverse. When it arrived it was covered in a mix of pretty soft mud and a slightly harder set clay. With a mix of an initial Vulpex clean, distilled water soaks and some light mechanical cleaning I have removed the top layers of mud and clay but have now been left with a coin which has this tough brown encrustation which you can remove as I did remove a tiny amount under a microscope. My concern largely falls in to the
reverse as the
patina seems less stable and more porous than the
obverse so not sure mechanical cleaning wont cause more damage in the longer run?
I am edging to longer DW soaks but not convinced it will do anything at this point on its own
Any advice appreciated
Thanks
Steve