Saturday 6 March 2010

Apparently, "Collectors care for, study and preserve artefacts"

One of the leitmotifs of the collecting advocacy (for example here) is that collectors care for, study and preserve the artefacts in their possession, just like a real museum. The logic of asserting that everyone with a credit card and a desire to accumulate their own "pieces of the past to hold in your hand" must posess the required knowledge to do any of those things is highlighted by a post on an artefact collectors' discussion forum, reproduced here unedited:
Hey Guys, I recently was cleaning a coin, and I relized this is just a junk coin, but it was pink, what material could they use that would be pink, also I am new to cleaning the black/green/brown patina does that stuff eat away at the accual bronze/copper what ever they used also I seen a article somewhere about using vinegar is that recommended and for how long should the coin soak in it Ive been trying distilled water olive oil and vinegar with a tooth brush and a pick tool from my Cricut.
I also need help with taking off the white crust or should I leave it, will it remove the coin material.
How does one go about trying to identify the coins, with what appears to be thousands of different kings/rulers its rather mind boggling trying to figure out if I got roman byzantine and well its all Greek to me hah
and while I am on the topic of cleaning is there something I could swill around in my roman glass flask to take off the sand I don't really want to try and rub it off or pick it. I just want to see if I can remove some of the sand or should I just leave it be?
ha! Let us see what kind of a response this collects.
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1 comment:

  1. Paul Barford8 March 2010 at 11:40

    The guy was avised to join some coiney groups. So he dutifully joined Moneta-L (and put on his best spelling hat to do so) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Moneta-L/message/95525 - note this was after I had posted to AncientArtifacts the links to teh Portable Antiquities Scheme website on conservation of finds which alsogives further reading:
    Hello Group, I am new to this group, I am also new to collecting coins and cleaning coins. I am in the process of cleaning my first batch of coins. I have a few questions I hope someone can help me with.

    Question 1.) I am using distilled water Olive Oil and Vingear the Vinegar seems very strong, I seen a site that gave refrence to using it but I am unsure how long to keep them in there. One coin has seemed to turn a red color its wierd it doesnt look metalic is there a substance the ancients used that was red.

    Question 2.) I have bought some ancient coins that have a shiney green patina. How do you get them to be shiny like that, I am affraid I have toasted some coins trying to remove a abundance of gunk to be able to see the face and back. Is there something I can use that would remove the white crust.

    Question 3.) How do you clean a coin that is pitted,and black you can see the face because of the copper or the bronze is showing its kind of wierd to explain.

    Question 4.) Is there something that you can put on after you clean it to protect it.

    Question 5.) Electrolisis what is this and how does this work and does it even work, what are some things that works for any of you guys.

    Thank you very much for any help you can offer.

    And to the credit of the coineys he immediately got told what the artefact collectors should have told him two days earlier:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Moneta-L/message/95527
    Hi Kevin, I'm afraid what you're learning is not cleaning but destroying coins. Olive oil, vinegar and electrolysis are not for cleaning coins. Neither is a Dremel.

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