Hello, I had purchased some Vandal/Ostrogoth/5th C AE4s a bit ago. The seller threw some extra coins in, most uncleaned border-line slugs (floor-scrapings from his days helping a dealer friend go through big lots of uncleaned coins back when such coins were treated as trash). A few I set aside thinking they might have something under the dirt. Some turned out to be decent coins. One of them, the one I'm writing about, seemed to be a silvery metal once I took a good look at it in the right light. So into the DW. Dirt was coming off well enough but I got greedy & excited & stupidly decided to try a test scrape; very gently with a Bradford Pear thorn (my go to, a medium-hard wood spike). I wound up scratching the thing, not too bad but still, and realized it was lead & very soft. Whatever it is is 7mm & 1g. DW soaks are taking the dirt off on their but the water is turning silvery & there's strange globs in it. I'm a little worried about touching it. There seems to be a wreath on one side & either a very crude lion head or portrait on the other. I've tried photographing it, but it comes out as a blurry mess of light. I'm going to try again this weekend & post the results regardless.
Any chance anyone has come across anything like this? Not the best description, I know, but has anyone seen a coin the size & shape of a 5th C 1-nummis but in lead instead of bronze? Almost like it was cast from a bronze?
Also, I have no experience cleaning lead; am I screwing up having it in DW? It almost seems to be dissolving the coin itself. Any advice or criticism or ideas as to what the heck it could be would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Luke
