long term soaking of uncleaned coins in olive oil

[Victor]

I just won 150 uncleaned coins, which for the most part are pretty crusty. I am going to put most of them in a jar of olive oil for at least a year and check how they look. My goal is to see how long they have to sit in the oil until they are clean, without me scrubbing...or if it is even possible. Some will probably clean pretty easily, others not so much. I will change the olive oil as needed, but will not otherwise disturb the coins.

The longest I have left coins in olive oil is only a few months with mediocre results, so I figured I would give this a shot.

[Joshmaggosh]

I'll be looking forward to your updates!

I have a similar lot I've been soaking in changed out distilled water for over a year. Each time I scrub them, I see no change and they go back on-top of the fridge for another couple months. I'm not sure what else to do with them at this point. I've tried drying them to see if the crud would get crumbly but it's just as hard and unremovable as it was before a year of soaking!

Good luck!

[Victor]

Some coins will never improve with just soaking in water, of course, some coins will never improve to begin with.

I would add a detergent, start gentle like dawn dish washing detergent. I frequently use alconox which is a "concentrated, anionic detergent for manual and ultrasonic cleaning. It is free rinsing to give you reliable results without interfering residues."

I will update with pictures of the coins when I get them, right before they go into the olive oil.

[Victor]

I got the uncleaned coins today. I sorted through them and none were broken or chipped, so all will go into the long soak except the Trajan denarius. Most of them were pretty crusty, so maybe some good coins in there under the dirt. I didn't take another before photo though, I figured the auction photos would work. I took a picture of them in a jar with the oil. I will periodically check the oil and make sure it does not need changing, otherwise I am not going to do anything with these coins.

here are the prices for the lots with the descriptions--


$119.00  "Lot of 100 Uncleaned Roman Bronze Coins"    I was the only bidder for these.

$154.39  "Lot of 50 Uncleaned Better Quality Roman Bronze Coins"   This lot had three bids. I don't think the coins are really any better than the other lot, but they sold for about three times as much. Advertising them as "better quality" paid off.

[Victor]

A little over a month, with no discernible change, though that is not a surprise.

[Victor]

I am using a candle warmer to heat the oil; which should speed up a terribly slow process. I am going to try some scented warming oils (tropical mist) also, though I am not sure how effective that will be; but it will smell much nicer!

[Victor]

I changed the oil and lightly brushed the coins. Not much change...but some seem a bit cleaner.

[Victor]

I just changed the oil as it was getting dark from the dirt coming off the coins. I did not take any pictures though as there was not much noticeable improvement, though the dirt seems to be loosening up nicely.