Blue Ribbon on Ancient Coins?

dthigpen

Howdy,

I don't really collect world or ancient coins at all (Except for South African Gold) and am definately not use to cleaning them. I bought a bunch of uncleaned ancient coins just for fun and am using olive oil currently to break down the sediment on them (Which is very slow but seems to be working). I have read that you should use something like Blue Ribbon on them after they are cleaned to coat/condition them, is this true?

Thanks for any feedback,

lathmach

Blue Ribbon is good on copper, brass and bronze. You could also use sewing machine oil, or #5 hydrolic oil.

Ray

PuddlePirate

Be gentle with the brush work! A heavy hand can ruin those bronzes easily.
I have been cleaning ancients for several years now and use a series of different light acid solutions. After I do the inital olive oil soak and light brush work I put them in white vinegar for about a week, rinse well, do a light brushing and then back to olive oil. The vinegar soak really helps break down the crud and I will often alternate solutions of vinegar, olive oil, and household ammonia. The process can easily take several months.
I have a small vibratory "pickler" that I used to use when making jewelry. I have found that when getting down to the final brush work, putting the coins in the pickler with a solution of ammonia or pure lemon juice will generally make the final cleaning fairly simple. If you have an office supply store you can generally find a small vibrator cleaner for "roller ball pens" which will do the same thing as a vibratory pickler If you hit a hard patina be very careful and I do not reccomend using ammonia then, if sufficent ammonia gets underneath the patina the patina may break up giving you a blotchy surface and a generally horrid looking coin.
I sometimes use "brasso" very lightly on the finished peices when the patina is very porous. The polish will give the patina a very hard "crisp" look instead of dull washed out color and detail. Each coin is different and that is one of the things that makes cleaning the ancients so much fun.
The key to the whole cleaning process is patience, patience and more patience.
Have fun.

dougdann

Hi lathmach,
Just curious, have you had any trouble with the vinegar being too harsh on your unclean coins?.
I too clean ancient coins and generally enjoy just using DW, tooth brush and a plastic knife.
Use lemon juice on pure silver uncleans. Short soaks followed by rinses and scrubbing then repeat.

I haven't tried the vinegar as I thought it would be too much.
Let me know, if you can, of general results with white vinegar.

Thankyou,

Doug
P.S. Some people use dellars darkner on their coins after cleaning.
I don't use anything on mine, I don't like the way it makes th eocins darker. I like the natural look.
But have considered to startt with something as it might provide good protection for the coins to last for years to come.