I don't see VAL VAL on the writtings, but also I'm not sure what are the writting, and I might have poked some (it was encrusted in stone, took me a week to clean)
Status geändert zu Gelöst(Alexcamill, 13 März 2024, 09:01)
I collect and deal in ancient Roman coin. In case you're looking for affordable ancient coins or need any help with the coins you already have send me a message.
here you can follow my collection with all before/after.
i think this one is id #3.
although my photos are very not representative of the real final look. They look super fine in real, but with my lightning and camera it seems all destroyed
I'm sorry to say this but after look at the before photo you completely destroyed this coin. It had a healthy beautiful patina on it and was what I would consider a high grade ancient while now it's a harshly cleaned average coin. 🙁
Unfortunately looking at your other coins I see the same problem with others too. An ancient coin should have patina on it and should not look shiny and new. I won't even get into all the value the coins lost due to cleaning, such a shame.
Some ancient coins need cleaning, your definitely did not.
I collect and deal in ancient Roman coin. In case you're looking for affordable ancient coins or need any help with the coins you already have send me a message.
what are your qualifications to have such harsh judgements?
what if I am not after value but enjoying the details of my coins?
before engaging into any cleaning I’ve made sure with qualified persons what I intended to do was not destructive and they told me it was fine. After seeing the results they were also surprised by the decent results.
The layer of sand or « desert patina » is gone, but the patina on the bronze is intact. My process slowly and carefully removed all sand Revealing the topography below without attacking the real patina.
But it’s fine, learning take some experiments. These are my first coins.
I'm just a collector that had the good fortune to be around a lot of ancient coin but if you're looking for an authority to tell you the same take a look at the coins being sold at auction houses and the prices they realize. The coins in their original state would be atractive to both aucion houses and collectors, the cleaned ones would be rejected by auction houses as cleaned and I can't see a serious collector wanting to add them to their collection.
You came here looking for help from collectors more experienced than you. My comment wasn't ment to insult you but to help you before you ruin your collection. But don't just trust me, I'd also love to hear other members opinions on the matter. Also try posting your before and after results to Forvm Ancient Coins. That's a specialized site that deals only in ancient coins and has a wide community.
I collect and deal in ancient Roman coin. In case you're looking for affordable ancient coins or need any help with the coins you already have send me a message.
It’s cool, will look into it. Just I’ve already got some serious thing in my life, this is a hobby and I like how they look this way. This is not done for money.
I’ll consider for the next ones.
and so what is the reason for cleaning a coin? Is desert patina always considered patina, isn’t the patina below the real patina if you can clean it meticulously?
For your reference, this is the response I got from the auction house:
I cannot believe how much you were able to lift off this coin. Wild to see how high the relief on the portrait and lettering actually are. I spoke with our ancient specialist Graham and his comment is that it wont do much to increase the value as there is a bit of a limit on these coins, but you are probably not destroying or decreasing their value either.
Ancient should be cleaned when they're for instance covered with dirt making them unidentifyable or with dangerous verdigris that could destroy the coin. Also in my opinion it's ok to clean low grade coins that are already not really desirable. Some of your coins were high grade ancients with beautiful patina and in my opinion it was a shame to clean them.
As for the experts opinion, I don't know who he is but I wouldn't trust or buy anything from an auction house with such an expert opinion.
I wish you the best of luck with the problems you have in your life and truly am sorry if it seems like my goal was to offend you as it really wasn't. I just had to react to what in my opinion is destroying ancient coins.
I collect and deal in ancient Roman coin. In case you're looking for affordable ancient coins or need any help with the coins you already have send me a message.
Also I did research before starting it all, one thing keeps coming back « risk damaging the coin » . if you just remove the patina without damaging the coin I though this was okay.
I'll use some of your photos to make my point, I hope you don't mind:
The coins in their original state had fully visible text, no damage, nice details and a healthy patina. After cleaning the patina is completely gone and arguably even some details are lost which were enhanced by the patina. The coins on the left are desirable and would fit nicely into any ancient collection, if they were Siscia mint I'd gladly have them in my own collection as I only collect Siscia. The ones on the right in my opinion no longer carry eye appeal, are clearly cleaned which many collectors consider the same as damaged and I would no longer add them into my own collection.
I'm sorry about my harsh words, English isn't my first language and I sometimes have trouble choosing words.
I collect and deal in ancient Roman coin. In case you're looking for affordable ancient coins or need any help with the coins you already have send me a message.
Take a look at the before and after results in the post. Look how beautiful the coin is at the end and how most of the original patina is left on the coins and how it enhances the coin's details. As you can see the only place he removed patina was around the face where there was a thick layer of dirt. The op even says in step no 3 to watch out as to not remove the sand patina. Now take a look at your own Diocletianus coin which started almost with the same patina type and ended up completely flat with no patina left.
The op in the post is clearly a professional, I cleaned over a hundred ancient coins and never came close to his results. That is how an ancient coins should be cleaned. While learning I suggest doing it on low grade coins where it's no loss if the coin ends up without patina, not beautiful examples like these.
Good luck in the future and I look forward to seeing what else you got in the lot you purchased.
I collect and deal in ancient Roman coin. In case you're looking for affordable ancient coins or need any help with the coins you already have send me a message.
I'll use some of your photos to make my point, I hope you don't mind:
The coins in their original state had fully visible text, no damage, nice details and a healthy patina. After cleaning the patina is completely gone and arguably even some details are lost which were enhanced by the patina. The coins on the left are desirable and would fit nicely into any ancient collection, if they were Siscia mint I'd gladly have them in my own collection as I only collect Siscia. The ones on the right in my opinion no longer carry eye appeal, are clearly cleaned which many collectors consider the same as damaged and I would no longer add them into my own collection.
I'm sorry about my harsh words, English isn't my first language and I sometimes have trouble choosing words.
