hotwheelsearl

Here's my Commodus from start to finish. Some sodium hydroxide got us to picture 2. Lots of sodium thiosulfate got us to picture 3.

“since it doesn't seem to make much sense in terms of a single transaction why it would be useful to have two coins of fairly similar value.” sort of reminds me of the train wreck of the silver 20 cent piece that looked pretty much the same as the circulating 25 cent piece back in the day.

Please just soak it in sodium thiosulfate. It will look much better

What are these? Museum replicas?

Victorinus is always a crowd (un)favorite.

I have this thread over on CT, thought I'd start one here. Please show off the absolute worst, dog-awful flans you have. The worse the better, and especially for those periods when flans tended to be "alright." First post is this absolutely wonky Gallienus. He's got some weird flans, but they're typically relatively okay. This one really missed the "uniformity" memo.

Dang, once Probus gets something interesting on the shield the price goes WAY up... Saw one on a recent Roma auction that sold for $500, I think.

Like the infamous "Maine Penny," somehow the media always jumps to the conspiracies - presence of ancient coins out of place obviously indicates a heretofore-unknown travel of ancient peoples. Or, traders brought it, someone had it as a collectible and lost it... etc.

Amazing! Can’t believe the legend goes the OTHER direction. Neat! Thank you as always

Well, this AE17 has basically a full legend, but I somehow can't make heads or tails of it. I'm usually pretty okay at coin Greek, but this is kicking my butt. Obv/Rev: KAHTON---N Rev/Obv: MHN-ΘεANIΩ I'm guessing one side is a "youthful head of the Senate" and the other side is head of Apollo, but I can't even tell which is which, of if I'm even correct. An RPC search with MHN turned up about a thousand results, so barring spending the rest of the evening scrolling... pls halp 😕

Alice is out. Omar is filling in. He can process any payments via email or phone with a credit card number. Their payment system busted for me last time. I trust them with my card info

I tend to do Gallienus, because cheap and interesting. Lots of reverse types, lots of mints, and lots of different compositions, ranging from good silver to bronze, to silvered to plated to billon. Lots of fun I like seeing how differently the portrait is depicted too, such as this funky nose here:

Roma recently upped their shipping dramatically. Used to be 21.50, now it’s 30.00 (GBP). Absolutely no excuse other than simple profit-whoring.

Depends on what exactly the green is. If its verdigris, it's generally stable and can be left alone. Verdigris is typically a darker green. Mint green, if flaky/chalky, is bronze disease and should be avoided at all costs. That is unusual for silver coins though, unless a fourree on a core of bronze, or a really awful low silver content billon with more bronze than silver.

When you start coughing and your hand burns you know you’re there

I would imagine so, thiosulfate works wonders on rust on non-silver coins, so I would think it would work on silver coins.

Are you sure the silver layer is not on top? You can often have silvered coins that look like there's rust, but it's just the surface layer wearing away. To be fair, Philip I tended not to mint silvered coins, so you may be right after all. If it's truly a layer of oxidized rust, then sodium thiosulfate will get rid of it, pronto.

This almost looks like the silver has worn away exposing a copper core.

A lot of practice helps you determine what kind of encrustation you have, and how to remove it. I'm a big proponent of chemicals. In general: brown/flaky/dirt colored on bronze - use sodium hydroxide red/orange/rust colored on bronze - use sodium thiosulfate blue/green on bronze - use acetic acid (vinegar) black on silver - use sodium thiosulfate Vinegar is usually a last resort, as it will almost certainly strip patina. however, if the coin is already overcleaned to begin with, then sometimes it's your last option. Depending on the composition of the coin, ie bronze vs copper vs brass vs orichalcum, vinegar may or may not be a great option, though. For example, vinegar was what brought a sestertius of Trajan back to life. Silver is pretty resistant to most of patina-stripping compounds, iff its quite pure silver. I still tend not to subject silver to vinegar since it will dissolve it away pretty quick. One of the simplest, and most dramatic methods of cleaning silver is simple sodium thiosulfate. This tends to leave the patina mostly alone, while removing all of the black horn silver. It's all very conditional, and pics are always helpful to try to figure out a game plan. As for tools - I only use a dental pick for the most part. The way I see it, if a gauntlet of chemicals and incredibly high point-based pressure from a pick doesn't do the trick, nothing will. Also, I sometimes use Jax Patina Restorer and Renaissance Wax. Jax is good if you've stripped a coin to bare metal; sometimes you end up with coin that looks almost pink! Depending on the surface you end up with, Renaissance Wax is good to even out micro-pitting and even out the color. However, it gives a rather glossy finish that some collectors don't like. You can counter this by treating with Ren Wax, letting it sit overnight, and then dunking it in some mineral spirits. This will remove some, but not all, of the Ren Wax. That's all I got for now

I'm pretty experienced, ask away

Sure was, I think I paid way too much but it was super cool...

I'm not too sure. The reverse is a river god reclining, from Philippopolis.

Check this out, a very unusual exergue filled with 3 children playing. this past looks like a kid playing with a hoop of some sort. How cool

Here's an interesting example that was incredibly overcleaned, but it shows, in great and interesting detail, the underlying copper and the surface brass-y composition.

Several months ago, I bought this siliqua of Constantius II. It came relatively white, with some standard blackish toning. Flash forward a few months, after leaving it on my desk the whole time... Now I've got this lovely blue and gold edge toning. Wow, I did not think that 1,600 year old coins would tone in 4 months, but here we are. Stupendous!