Cleaning Roman coins

[Baggins]

Hello all, I just got a bunch of Roman coins in need of cleaning,,,what would be the best method to do so?
Thanks,
Baggins

 

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[Eu_citzen]

DON'T CLEAN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NEVER EVER CLEAN VALUABLE COINS!

Did I make that clear enough?

 

[Baggins]

Not even with peroxide? Some of the coins, you can't even make out any details...would like to get an idea of what they are...
Baggins

 

[texan connection]

I'd try lemon juice its fast and forgiving.

 

[Eu_citzen]

http://www.mycoincollecting.com/collecting/cleaning-coins.html

There is some good info on that site.

 

[MEinWV]

Baggins, I have purchased and cleaned a number of ancient Roman coins. The people that dig up these hoards in Europe have already removed most of the valuable ones anyway, so it really doesn't affect the value to get the heavy crud off of them. Just don't use any objects such as pins, knives, or picks that are made of steel as they will scratch the coins, which are mainly made of bronze. Some folks start by soaking them in distilled water. Distilled water has no minerals in it, thereby causing mineral deposits on the coin to be absorbed into the water. The method I like is soaking them in olive oil. As the coins soak, you start to see a green mist in the oil as the crud softens. These methods can take weeks and even months to work. I remove the coins every so often and scrape at them with my fingernails, toothpicks, or hard plastic picks and a denture cleaning brush. Some coins come out better than others, so just be patient. Some will be pretty easy to ID, and some won't, but it is a lot of fun bringing history to light.

Good luck! Try to take some before and after pics.

 

[Baggins]

Hey thanks for the advice...will try it and see what happens...will do pics as well...what about electrolysis?
Baggins

 

[MEinWV]

Yes, I should have mentioned electrolysis. I have not tried it on the Romans, but I used to use it on some detector finds.

I'm sure it would work quite well to remove the crud. Hey! I just had an idea! I wonder how it would work to combine the olive oil with the electrolysis instead of water. Ooooooooooooooh! I'll have to try that someday! You have inspired me! Thanks!

HC..........(Happy Cleaning)

 

[scotvs capitis]

You might try my tutorial on cleaning Roman coins. The one in my avatar was cleaned with this method - simple and gentle, but time consuming. If they are really crusty you may need to go with more mechanical methods, but try the distileld water soaks first.

http://scotvscapitis.blogspot.com/2006/10/step-by-step-cleaning-and-attributing.html