Uncleaned Ancient Coins Have Arrived!

[JamminJ]

As discussed in a neighboring thread Greg and I went halfsies on a 1000 coin lot of uncleaned ancient coins. I picked up my half today, have a look:

 

Pretty much as expected with the coins on average a bit smaller than I thought. The lot looks somewhat picked over with most of the larger and silver coins damaged in some way.

 

I'm going to start cleaning them tomorrow. If anyone has any experience with uncleaned ancients please post here how it was done and what the results were. As of now I plan on trying to clean a few small coins rapidly with diluted lemon juice and my wife's jewelery cleaner but putting most of them in oliive oil for a long term soak.

 

Thing pointed us to the seller, but it will probably be a few months before we know if he deserves a or a .

 

I can't tell you how much I would have liked to see the look on Greg's fiance's face when he told her he spent $500 on these while holding up a bag of dirt. Just in case you think we're the only two people silly enough to buy clumps of dirt Shirohniichan and Hoot will be buying a few also.

 

-JamminJ

[the_Thing ®]

Cool JJ, at least I know you got the coins. Thats a good start for me! Hints: The largest coins will most likely be Roman Republic or Byzanytine. The ones that have the really really green crud are most likely Judean/Biblical. You can certainly make a profit is you wish, it will just take some work. But the work sure can be fun. AND, they appear to be truely "uncleaned" to me, so, you might find a few sleepers in there worth atleast what you paid for them. You never know.

[the_Thing ®]

P.S. if you run across any with features that can be seen before you start cleaning, maybe you can get a pic? I like to try and ID stuff.

[truthteller]

Do you realize you are holding a man from Judea's life savings. But that lot wouldn't buy a clump of olives in Samaria. Yet, it might buy a small donkey in the Sinai.

 

 

 

TRUTH

[JamminJ]

Do you realize you are holding a man from Judea's life savings. But that lot wouldn't buy a clump of olives in Samaria. Yet, it might buy a small donkey in the Sinai.

 

TRUTH

 

This was advertised as a Holy Land mix! Thoughts like yours are one of the reasons I wanted to give a lot like this a try.

 

-JamminJ

[Hoot]

I can't tell you how much I would have liked to see the look on Greg's fiance's face when he told her he spent $500 on these while holding up a bag of dirt.

 

 

Just in case you think we're the only two people silly enough to buy clumps of dirt Shirohniichan and Hoot will be buying a few also.

 

 

Can't wait!

 

Hoot

[shirohniichan]

Do you realize you are holding a man from Judea's life savings. But that lot wouldn't buy a clump of olives in Samaria. Yet, it might buy a small donkey in the Sinai.

 

TRUTH

 

This was advertised as a Holy Land mix! Thoughts like yours are one of the reasons I wanted to give a lot like this a try.

 

-JamminJ

 

"Touched by the hand of Porcius Festus?"

 

I can hardly wait! I'm going to use this as a combination history/science lesson for my daughter (and wife) as we see them get cleaner over the 8 or so months we soak them in olive oil. I'm interested in seeing how many turn out "as good as new" and how many look like clean lumps of crud after the soak.

[JamminJ]

P.S. if you run across any with features that can be seen before you start cleaning, maybe you can get a pic? I like to try and ID stuff.

 

I dug out six of them that had some detail visible through the crud. Unfortunately, there were no coins with details visible on both sides. I will be very impressed if you can narrow these down from just the pictures.

 

They're all quite small rangind fro 10-14 mm across. The pictures are more or less proportional.

 

Left: A beast of some sort standing in profile.

Right: Two horns joined into a "U" shape. I have several of these coins.

 

Left: Figure standing facing viewer. Holding a staff in left hand.

Right: Human or beast in profile facing right.

 

Left: Most detailed coin but wors picture. Two figures facing one another getting ready to high-five. Right guy wearing a hat. Lengend surrounds figures above.

Right: Figure standing facing viewer.

 

-JamminJ

[shirohniichan]

The top right photo looks like the coin has two chili peppers with three stars above them. I think three stars denote "spicy".

 

The one on the bottom left looks like an alien playing patty-cake with a cowboy.

[Hoot]

The top right photo looks like the coin has two chili peppers with three stars above them. I think three stars denote "spicy".

 

The one on the bottom left looks like an alien playing patty-cake with a cowboy.

 

I thought that the lower left piece looked like a still photo of a scene from the Honeymooners. Wasn't that show produced around the period of these coins?

 

Hoot

[the_Thing ®]

JJ, the first coin is a biblical coin,a bronze Prutah. It is of Hyrcanus I. Like this coin...

 

 

The info comes from the webpage the image is from...

 

John Hyrcanus I (Yehohanan), 134 - 104 B.C.

 

John Hyrcanus was the son of Simon the Maccabee and nephew of the folk hero Judah Maccabee. Not long after Hyrcanus assumed power, the Seleukid kingdom marched on Jerusalem. The Seleukid king, Antiocus VII, and Hyrcanus I negotiated a treaty that left Hyrcanus a vassal to the Syrian king.

 

Obverse Greek letter A above Hebrew inscription, Yehonanan the High Priest and the Council of the Jews, surrounded by wreath; reverse double cornucopia adroned with ribbons, pomegranate between horns, border of dots

[JamminJ]

You two have a genius for attribution.

 

Edited to add: refering only to Shiroh and Hoot.

 

-JamminJ

[the_Thing ®]

I'm working on the others...

[the_Thing ®]

The last one is Roman, I'm sure of. Most likely around 300 AD. Hard to tell on the center one. I know some dudes that should know. I knew right away on the first one, knew the last was Roman. I think the middle one is Roman also, but not sure.

[shirohniichan]

JJ, the first coin is a biblical coin,a bronze Prutah.

 

Hey, watch your language-- this is a family forum.

 

Oops, there's an "r" in there.

 

The middle coin looks like it has a design of a squished cat. It's probably denoting the trampling of Egyptian sacred cats by the Hebrews as they left for Canaaan.

[JamminJ]

JJ, the first coin is a biblical coin,a bronze Prutah. It is of Hyrcanus I. Like this coin...

 

 

The info comes from the webpage the image is from...

 

John Hyrcanus I (Yehohanan), 134 - 104 B.C.

 

John Hyrcanus was the son of Simon the Maccabee and nephew of the folk hero Judah Maccabee. Not long after Hyrcanus assumed power, the Seleukid kingdom marched on Jerusalem. The Seleukid king, Antiocus VII, and Hyrcanus I negotiated a treaty that left Hyrcanus a vassal to the Syrian king.

 

Obverse Greek letter A above Hebrew inscription, Yehonanan the High Priest and the Council of the Jews, surrounded by wreath; reverse double cornucopia adroned with ribbons, pomegranate between horns, border of dots

 

Holy moly!

That is cool, and I am very impressed.

 

-JamminJ

[the_Thing ®]

[the_Thing ®]

JJ, I was right about the bottem 2 being Roman. I needed some assistance in ID'ing them... This is what I got...

 

The one on the left is victoriaeddavggqnn, 2 victories with wreaths

341 - 346 constans or constantius II

The one on the right is gloriaromanorvm emperor right dragging captive

labarum in left hand 364 - 378 valentinian I valens or gratian

 

 

Those real long words you see that make no sense are what the legends (would) read....

[PovertyRow]

As of now I plan on trying to clean a few small coins rapidly with diluted lemon juice and my wife's jewelery cleaner but putting most of them in oliive oil for a long term soak.

 

I would suggest an alternaitive. Use distilled water on the pieces that look like they will respond quickly to cleaning. As I understand it, the distilled water will be "attracted" to the mineral encrustations and will help dissolve them. On a daily basis use a SOFT bristle toothbrush and gently brush the surfaces. You may be surprised how much detail can show after a few days of this.

 

Lemon juice and jewelry cleaner etc - would not recommend, especially if any silver or silver plate may be there.

 

Even with the olive oil (remember - you want the cheapest pure - not virgin or extra virgin) you should do some brushing with a different brush (you don't want to mix the oil and water by using the same brush).

 

As pieces start to reveal detail use a tootpick or chopstick sliver or even those plastic teeth flossers that have a pointed tip. Get a magnifying glass you can put the coin under with some light and still get at it. Start using your toothpick etc to gently try removing encrustration. Use some water or oil (depending on the soak) to keep the coin moistened. Then return them to the soak and repeat. It can take time!

[JamminJ]

Thanks for the advice!

 

I've been reading up on how to clean these thing and most folks agree with you that soap, water and a soft toothbrush is the first step. Since I have 450 for my own use I can afford to experiment with a few but will go the soap -> olive oil route on the vast majority.

 

Have you ever tried electrolytic cleaning? People seem to ahve mixed feelings about that method but it seems to be neccessary on the hardest cases.

 

-JamminJ

[PovertyRow]

Have you ever tried electrolytic cleaning? People seem to ahve mixed feelings about that method but it seems to be neccessary on the hardest cases.

 

I've played around with it but never seriously. It can do more harm than good. Thing with the ancient coins is you want to try to preserve the patina. A raw metal coin is not dear to most collector's hearts. In some cases, the patina is almost all you have left of the coin devices, and electrolytic cleaning can strip the patina pretty much 100%, leaving you with a slug.

 

The problem is there is no fast track (at least without a lot of practice with using harder probes, diamond coated or dental pick type instruments or dremel type tools.) to cleaning those ancient coins. But the more you do, the better you get!

[JamminJ]

OK, preserving the patinia is a higher priority than I originally thought. At first I just thought the_Thing was a lone nutjob constantly harping on the patinia.

 

In my batch are several clearly damaged coins (holed or broken) so I'll use them for experimentation. I'll use olive oil on all of the nicer looking ones. Check back in six months for a progress report!

 

-JamminJ

[PovertyRow]

OK, preserving the patinia is a higher priority than I originally thought. At first I just thought the_Thing was a lone nutjob constantly harping on the patinia.

 

In my batch are several clearly damaged coins (holed or broken) so I'll use them for experimentation. I'll use olive oil on all of the nicer looking ones. Check back in six months for a progress report!

 

-JamminJ

 

Nope. The patina is key! And remember to change the oilive oil regularly. Maybe couple of weeks. But since it is the cheap stuff it is, well, cheap.

[spiny]

Have you ever tried electrolytic cleaning? People seem to ahve mixed feelings about that method but it seems to be neccessary on the hardest cases.

 

In some cases, the patina is almost all you have left of the coin devices, and electrolytic cleaning can strip the patina pretty much 100%, leaving you with a slug.

 

This was my experience with electrolysis. Even with using a variable power supply to control the current, the surfaces end up stripped. Coins that are more corrosion than coin, but still have some recognizable features, can end up being completely unrecognizable. Even the solid coins will end up looking processed.

 

Oh, another thing I found is that after a little heat builds up in the solution you can get some interesting colors on clad coins.

[JamminJ]

Thanks for sharing your experience with electrolysis, it sounds like a "method of last resort".

 

Oh, another thing I found is that after a little heat builds up in the solution you can get some interesting colors on clad coins.

 

Is the color "market acceptable"?

 

-JamminJ

[gmarguli]

My batch is really dirty (as expected). Dirt falls off them with ease. I was planning on putting them in the washing machine and seeing if they cleaned up. Good/bad idea?

[spiny]

 

 

 

Nah, they still looked cooked but it beats firing up the oven.

[PovertyRow]

My batch is really dirty (as expected). Dirt falls off them with ease. I was planning on putting them in the washing machine and seeing if they cleaned up. Good/bad idea?

 

bbrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

 

No washing machine for your coins! The dirt can be easily removed by hand with a distilled water bath folowed by soft toothbrush. You may be surprised how much detail can be revealed. But clanking them around in a washing machine? Good potential for damage!

 

You are like me when I first tried cleaning ancients. Always looking for the quick way out!

[chinook]

My batch is really dirty (as expected). Dirt falls off them with ease. I was planning on putting them in the washing machine and seeing if they cleaned up. Good/bad idea?

 

Maybe try putting them in a collander in a dishwasher?

[pdm12772-migration]

Hey guys I'm new here. Had a small batch from years ago and I am about to receive another batch soon. Love this hobby and the excitement of finding out what I have over the months.

 

Hey thing. I have a bunch of coins that I have no idea what they are. Would appreciate helping me out if possible. Thanks, Pete