Friday, May 2, 2008

Zapping A "Concrete Crusty" Coin


Hannah, one of our CoinZapper members, asked if I would make an effort to clean the coin you see pictured above. I agreed and as soon as I saw the coin I realized it had a terribly hard crust. There is no way to recover this kind of coin and maintain any imagery without zapping.

Please look at the bottom two images and you will see the condition of the coin upon arrival. I tested the crust and I rarely find coin with crusts as hard as was on Hanna’s coin. I zapped the coin most of the afternoon using my large zapper and my now well-known Bamboo Tools to help prod the crust loose.

From experience I knew the coin would most likely have pitting and as you can see it does. However, the beauty of the obverse especially strikes me. The coin reminds me of a piece of renaissance art. I am reminded of a piece from a frieze that has been exposed to the elements for an extended period of time. I love the character of the coin and I hope Hannah enjoys it. I am particularly open to critiques of my photographs. I enjoy receiving constructive criticism.

I would prefer the cleaned coin images had less of a brassy look but that is the result of having to leave the coin in the zapper for an extended period of time. If you enjoy my blog, please bookmark. God Bless.. Jerry..

3 comments:

Bill Donovan said...

nice job Jerry! Julian would be proud, but he would prefer you to have a more pagan outlook, :). It must have been fun and surprising to have such a cool coin come out of that supercrust!

The Warrior said...

Hello!

Not only have I bookmarked you, I've placed you in my blog roll as well!

Great blog! I need to try this one a coin of mine that looks exactly like yours. It's covered in what seems to be literal rock!

Spencer

Anonymous said...

beautiful set of rare coins, one of my favorites. they are considered to be masterpieces of mintage industry of ancient times. hannah, thanks for posting this article..

i saw another article on the same subject on www.dig4coins.com there are also many interesting facts. if you would like to inspire yourself, you may visit the site…
best regards..
jack.