Can we talk about the time I spent 5 hours trying to clean a single Roman coin

I found this old bronze coin at a local estate sale in Portland last spring (the guy said it was from the 3rd century). I figured I'd just scrub it gently with water and a toothbrush, but black crust kept sticking to the thing. After 3 hours of careful picking with a wooden toothpick, I realized I was just making tiny scratches. Turns out proper archaeological coin cleaning uses distilled water and a lot of patience, not brute force. I finally gave up and left it soaking for 2 whole days before the dirt loosened up. Has anyone else ruined a find by rushing the cleaning process?

3 comments

3 Comments

jessica7071mo agoTop Commenter

Wait so after all that soaking did the coin actually turn out to be anything special or was it just a lump of bronze? I'm curious if the estate sale guy was full of it.

the_wendy1mo ago

Wait, five hours on one coin? That's insane. I would have snapped that toothpick in half after 45 minutes and thrown the whole thing in a drawer. You've got the patience of a saint doing that pick work for three hours, but yeah, that black crust is a nightmare once you start digging in.

phoenix_bailey1mo agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, if that coin's been buried for 1700 years, the real damage might've been done by the air hitting it before you even touched it.