Mark Stilson Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 Picked up a group of uncleaned roman coins. Put together a little electrolysis set up to zap the coins. I tried a few other ways including olive oil before, but decided to try this. A shot of one of the coins pre zap. Just starting out the tub is pretty clean. After working for awhile. I probably have about a day left on the coin in the picture. I'll post some shots of it tomorrow. I also have another i gave a little shot but have not finished. Hopefully it will finish out tomorrow also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 A few more shots of it as it comes along. I am going to keep an eye on it and may swap it out to finish off in olive oil. Last nite This morning I am not an expert in the ancients, but I have not seen any with what appear to be 3 anhk's with balls on the bottom of them before. I will probably wait until its a little cleaner before I try to start ID'ing them. (Be able to read the writing a little better) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostDutchman Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 I have always thought about trying that process... can you explain what setup your using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 Sure. I went industrial. At first I started using old 120 vac to 12 vdc chargers off of radios, telephones, etc. But since most were old or marginal they seemed to die on me. Most were small low amperage ones. I first stripped off the ends of the wire and tested for polarity. (You can also just hook it up and watch which side bubbles. That is the negative side and the one the coin should be hooked to.) I wrapped the stripped positive side wire around a large washer. Some sites I've seen say to use a stainless steel spoon. The negative side I used a alligator clip for attaching to the coin. (One note here if the clip does not make good contact with the metal it may not work or start off real slow. ) I put a little bit of salt in the bottom of the plastic bowl then added distilled water. )You can see that in the first set of pictures. Distilled water does not conduct electricity very well that's why you add the salt. Anyways after losing a few chargers I went "industrial" I put 1/2 amp fuse on the positive side and hooked up to a car battery charger. Here is a site with pictures. Since I have a car charger on it I think I may end up hooking up one like the one he has on the second page. (See bottom on larger zapper.) I like the idea of having several coins going at once. BTW I have changed water out about 10 times so far on this one coin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 A couple other things. I noticed all of the chargers I checked had a solid black and a black with a white stripe on it. The black was the negative which went to the coin and the one with the white stripe went to the washer. It may not hold true for all chargers so you do need to test. And the normal warning you are using electricity around water and they don't mix well. Since it is a low dc voltage you should not have problems but as a precaution you may want to unplug the charger anytime you move, put in, or Take out the coin. (Suggest do as I say not as I do.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numismatic nut Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 I have a similar set up for zaping coins. The only difference is I can't find a 12 volt (2.5 amp) battery, so I use a 9 volt. It works well. Mark, did you find this in the book the urban treasure hunter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 I have a similar set up for zaping coins. The only difference is I can't find a 12 volt (2.5 amp) battery, so I use a 9 volt. It works well. Mark, did you find this in the book the urban treasure hunter? Nope, just searched the web. Found a pretty good write up on romancoin info. looks like I need to change out from salt to baking soda. Also I'm going to change over for final clean with olive oil. I am going to use the zapper to get the majority off until I start seeing coin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drwstr123 Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 Nope, just searched the web. Found a pretty good write up on romancoin info. looks like I need to change out from salt to baking soda. Also I'm going to change over for final clean with olive oil. I am going to use the zapper to get the majority off until I start seeing coin. Mark, Nice setup and a good use of time. One suggestion, don't use Olive Oil. It turns rancid. Use Mineral Oil instead. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Charlie Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 Cool project you've got going there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotten Rodney Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 Wow I started using that method in 2000. . . Everyone thought I was crazy. . . Well they may have been right about the crazy part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 Wow I started using that method in 2000. . . Everyone thought I was crazy. . . Well they may have been right about the crazy part. I kept saying I was going to put together a set up. Finally got around to it. Now I just need to do the multi zapper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moneydog Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 You can also put a little lemon concentrate in the water works great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeOldeCollector Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 I tried it on a few poor condition hammereds, it didn't work as well for me, not sure that silver is as good as other metals... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 Put this one in mineral oil soak mode now. It will take awhile for that. Here it is pre-soak. I just want to make sure I keep the nice color going. So going slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just carl Posted July 12, 2008 Report Share Posted July 12, 2008 I think I'd have tried a little more safer method first. Possibly soaking in Lemon Juice, soaking in Acetone, Lime Juice, etc. Rinsing it with distilled water after each. Even Coke or Pepsi for a breif time. If the coins were Copper I'd be carefull of any electrolysis process until a last resort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2008 I think I'd have tried a little more safer method first. Possibly soaking in Lemon Juice, soaking in Acetone, Lime Juice, etc. Rinsing it with distilled water after each. Even Coke or Pepsi for a breif time. If the coins were Copper I'd be carefull of any electrolysis process until a last resort. The last batch I tried all sorts of soaking methods. The thicker crust coins went about 1 year. That's the only ones I trying it on. In hand the one above is darker then it shows up. Some of them you can see at least some kind of relief on. Those are just going for the soaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotten Rodney Posted July 12, 2008 Report Share Posted July 12, 2008 You can also put a little lemon concentrate in the water works great. actually the lemon has acid in it. . . I really wouldn't suggest putting acid on your coins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotten Rodney Posted July 12, 2008 Report Share Posted July 12, 2008 I think I'd have tried a little more safer method first. Possibly soaking in Lemon Juice, soaking in Acetone, Lime Juice, etc. Rinsing it with distilled water after each. Even Coke or Pepsi for a breif time. If the coins were Copper I'd be carefull of any electrolysis process until a last resort. Actually the Electric method is no less safe than putting a 9 volt battery to your toungue. . . Plus it's cool to watch. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numismatic nut Posted July 12, 2008 Report Share Posted July 12, 2008 Actually the Electric method is no less safe than putting a 9 volt battery to your toungue. . . Plus it's cool to watch. . . It is safe. I think it's safer than an ultra sonic cleaning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted July 13, 2008 Report Share Posted July 13, 2008 Looking not to shabby. It's a provincial piece from the mid-200s. Usually Gordian III or one of the two Phillips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2008 Looking not to shabby. It's a provincial piece from the mid-200s. Usually Gordian III or one of the two Phillips. You hit the 200's right. but its a provincial. Severus Alexander (222-235 AD)Asia Minor Nicaea in Bithynia Now is Iznik, Turkey OBVERSE: laureate head right REVERSE: NI/K/A/IE/ between three standards, WN in exergue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2008 Warning!!!! Warning!!!! For those trying it. One of the times after I pulled out the coin and placed it back in I noticed the bubbles coming from the anode not the coin. Removed coin quickly, no harm done. It was only in there a few seconds. A quick check with my meter and it was showing a positive on the coin side. The charger swapped then back to negative on the coin side. I am going to see if I can put together a better rectifier or at least place some diodes on the output of the charger. Next week I am going down to the parts house to see if I can get some power diodes as a start. Put them on both sides that way if one fails the other will still keep it from reversing. (Could get real protective and series two of them on each lead. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotten Rodney Posted July 14, 2008 Report Share Posted July 14, 2008 Never had one reverse on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2008 I'm thinking if the diode went bad in the charger. When a diode fails it fails closed. Not sure why the movement back and forth though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted July 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Well I dropped two 6 amp rectifier diodes in line with the charger. Got a couple 10 amp clips. Using a spoon instead of the washer so the connection to it will be outside the bowl. And its working better then before. Before I ran it at 12 volts. Now to get the same results running it at 6. At 12 volts it runs too fast. As in makes the coin heat up some. 6 volts has nice slow bubbles coming of it and a little more control. In a way I would not mind dropping a rheostat in for some real fine control. Later today I'll put up some pictures. I should have taken a group shot before I started. Almost all of these were pretty crusty like the first one I did. Edit: adding the diodes also dropped "ripple" voltage by 1 vac. A little bit cleaner dc voltage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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