Ancient coin Cleaning - Saul Roll's guide (and maybe some input from me)

[ela126]

Not sure Byzantine is the best place to stick this thread, maybe needs to get moved.

Wanted to share the coin cleaning guide which Saul Roll shared with me about 18 months ago. I had been collecting ancients for about a year at that point and started very basic coin cleaning (after years of "don't touch your coins... don't even breath on them" from American collecting).

This guide really helped me expand my enjoyment of the hobby. I know on Facebook, Saul openly leads interested people to this guide so i wanted to share in case there was some curious minds here. I'll try to share some of my experiences as well (doing this on a desktop currently so i don't have my pictures, which are important). 

Please feel free to ask questions, i really can't recommend ancient coin cleaning more. Finding deals on coins with potential and cleaning them up to be in your collection, really doesn't get better. I'm sure many of you have tips and tricks of your own and i'm always curious to learn.

A-Method-for-cleaning-ancient-coins.-Romanorum.com.pdf

Edited October 20, 2023 by ela126

[ela126]

Tools are the most important (and essentially only part) you need for coin cleaning. I started with 1 dull hobby knife and an eyeglass screwdriver. 
 

They worked, but there’s certainly a “right tool for the job situation”. Although I heavily favor Saul’s diamond pin vice.

[ela126]

Getting good dirty coins is actually the most critical. Finding a source who sells coins which aren’t picked through too much, and have an acceptable ratio of ok coins versus slugs is critical.

once you clean about a dozen coins, and realize the time investment. You’ll determine you only want to bother with good potential coins. Paying double or more for good coins versus meh is certainly worth it. 100 bad dirty coins turn out to be 100 coins you don’t want to trouble yourself with. 10-15 good ones at the same price is far better.

this picture had a mixed bag of good and bad. I will say quality varies depending on dealers current inventory, if you’re buying in bulk.

 

Edited October 20, 2023 by ela126

[catadc]

The topic will probably go better in the Roman Empire section. Most of the coins available for cleaning come from that era. I saw that people in the Byzantine section rarely clean their coins. 

I started to clean coins as a hobby for the cleaning activity itself, and later branched into collecting and into Byzantines, where I am today. I am using a similar microscope and two types of high precision cutters - one like the one at the right in your photo, and a less pointy one. It comes with a lot of training hours to not scratch or otherwise damage the coin with those tools; here the cheap coins are good for, to train. 

My observation - late roman bronzes and byzantines react differently to cleaning. I now stick with wet cleaning for LRBs (soak in distilled water, scrape dirt, brush and repeat) and dry cleaning for byzantines (scrape dirt; brush and wash the coin only at the end).

Finding "unsearched" batches in today market is not going to happen. Expect very common coins in better condition or accept generally poor condition for a chance to a more rare coin. But as forum colleagues use to say, "nothing is more common than a rare coin". Most of the ancient coin collectors have a rare coin that is worth just a few bucks, myself included. I ended up purchasing in auctions my cleaning material - coins that I want and will stay in my collection after cleaning.  

[ela126]

25 minutes ago, catadc said:

The topic will probably go better in the Roman Empire section. Most of the coins available for cleaning come from that era. I saw that people in the Byzantine section rarely clean their coins. 

I started to clean coins as a hobby for the cleaning activity itself, and later branched into collecting and into Byzantines, where I am today. I am using a similar microscope and two types of high precision cutters - one like the one at the right in your photo, and a less pointy one. It comes with a lot of training hours to not scratch or otherwise damage the coin with those tools; here the cheap coins are good for, to train. 

My observation - late roman bronzes and byzantines react differently to cleaning. I now stick with wet cleaning for LRBs (soak in distilled water, scrape dirt, brush and repeat) and dry cleaning for byzantines (scrape dirt; brush and wash the coin only at the end).

Finding "unsearched" batches in today market is not going to happen. Expect very common coins in better condition or accept generally poor condition for a chance to a more rare coin. But as forum colleagues use to say, "nothing is more common than a rare coin". Most of the ancient coin collectors have a rare coin that is worth just a few bucks, myself included. I ended up purchasing in auctions my cleaning material - coins that I want and will stay in my collection after cleaning.  

Excellent points. 

I'd agree with you about the differences between LRB and Byzantine. LRB, at least the ones ive come across from a source around Hungary, seem to have more clay based soil, which can become hardened. They also seem to be more prone to corrosion, which almost no effort of cleaning seems to fix. I've very recently begun experiementing with blow torch cleaning after seeing 1 successful demonstration, which breaks up corrosion quickly, however destroys existing patina. Only save this option for coins with no hope.

For Byzantines, i couldn't nail down find locations, i only purchase more choice pieces indidvudally, but i agree, dry cleaning seems perfectly find here. Most of the coins seem to have more sand (uncompressed) dirts. However i do find these coins have BD more frequently, and must be dealt with. 

In the end, with 20+ Roman mints, and 5-6 more common Byzantine mints, my experience is very limited to certain geographic regions.

Also correct about truly unsearched batches being found. 100% zero shot. Any finder is going to be able to decern the best pieces immediately and remove them. Then, a local buyer, who is no doubt knowledgeable, with removed the identifiably rare pieces quickly, likely then being sold to a wholesaler/distrubtor who will pick off a few and hopefully sell to us cleaners. Where it gets bad i've found, is when an American dealer purchases, and picks it yet again, in this case, they know unknownledgable buyers will overvalue any common coins, and sell the better condition common pieces, only leaving "slugs" in cleaning lots. These are not the coins to buy as even mid/high quality common coins are removed, only leaving marginally attributable  ugly things. Rather important to steer away.

At this point i also only cherry pick partially uncleaned coins from auctions, which can be had at a good discount. Then enjoy cleaning them and placing in mt collection, much like you do.

[Simon]

I agree uncleaned are harder to find, at least uncleaned worth any time. A few years back was a different time and a much easier market for uncleaned. I have a box of different uncleaned purchases that I made then; many are small medieval when I was looking for a small byzantine tetartera. When uncleaned lots started disappearing, I started buying unattributed lots (Not pictured.).  I figured I would have something to do in retirement, not soon, I have a decade to go. 

I do keep a scope, not so much for cleaning but for seeing the details and checking out legends. Most cleaning now is just a bit of soaking in Verdecare. Bellow my scope and various bags of uncleaned, mostly late Byzantine and Medieval. I do have a bag of Hercules era coins uncleaned, but they are a pain, I doubt if I will get to them.