Can we talk about how the lab cleaned that Roman coin I dug up in Kent?

I pulled a crusty bronze coin out of a field near Canterbury last March and it looked like a flat brown pebble. Sent it to the county lab and got it back last week, and the difference was wild. They soaked it in something for a few days and the crust flaked off, and now I can read the letters around the edge. Before I couldn't even tell which side was up. Curious if any of you send finds in for cleaning or just leave them be?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

wyatt_green18h ago

Leaving the crust on means you're basically looking at a dirty rock forever, and half the fun of this hobby is actually seeing what you found. Labs know what they're doing and a bronze coin like that won't fall apart from a soak, so the risk is way lower than people make it out to be. Keeping it untouched only makes sense if it's something rare where every bit of patina matters, and a field find from Kent isn't that.

4