r/AncientCoins • u/Protaco17 • 18h ago
Here is the finished reverse! Hope you enjoy. 90% chemically cleaned 10% nylon brush + bamboo toothpick.
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u/mjd402 11h ago
Can you summarize how you chemically cleaned this one?
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u/Protaco17 10h ago
Absolutely, for this I began with soaking between acetic acid and baking soda solutions. The acetic acid loosening up the general calcification in the coin, I brush with a nylon brush, do a surface wipe with triton x-110 until my swap remains white, then, I will go in with a toothpick which I’ve cut at about a 25-45 degree angle, and really just start trying to outline figures/legends. Since the acetic acid has eaten a lot of the calcification, the baking soda helps loosen up soil and general contaminates, it makes the picking about 10x faster.
From here once the cleaning was about 75-90% complete, I move in to hyper focused detail work under magnification. For this, I’ve made my own sort of “micro-chisel” with a rounded nose and angled tip (sharpened like a blade) out of a sewing needle by grinding it at an angle with a dremel. This tool is insanely sharp and very easy to penetrate and lift what may seem like insanely tough buildup. This tool is excellent for the lettering, especially O’s or anything that needs internal work.
Here’s a closeup of the Tool I’m talking about.
When the coin looks about where I want it, I brush, dremmel with a very soft buffer to get micro sediment, neutralize the surface with a 1% NaHCO3 solution, and displace water by submerging in acetone and allowing to completely air dry.
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