Roman Coin Cleaning - Detail Work

This is short video that shows the near end stage of the coin cleaning process I use on ancient Roman coins. After cleaning with extended distilled water soaks, soft nylon brushing and careful cleaning with diamond dust tipped tools, all that is left is the fine detail work between the legend, clothing, hair and other factual features. I use a tiny micro tool that is coated with the finest grain diamond dust. After this cleaning is done, I polish with a very fine jewelers cloth. Once this side is done, I will repeat the process to clean the other side. This is followed by soaks in distilled water and Sodium sesquicarbonate solution to neutralize acids and copper chlorides - which dissolve bronze. After that treatment, the coin is rinsed in pure distilled water, and baked at 130c for 30 minutes to move al traces of moisture. Finally, the coin is polished again with microcrystalline wax to seal it from moisture.