How fascinating Alex! When I was a kid on west coast of Vancouver Island we dug a huge hole in our carport. Digging our way to China no doubt? We found a hoard of what we called very strange pennies. Turned out to be Spanish coins dated 1760's The Spaniards had come up the west coast. Surprising how far up from the Alberni canal that the hoard was. This Piqued a lifelong interest in antiquities for me.

hint: when cleaning never us metal on metal, toothpicks work quite well and are a lot kinder to the coin

14:10 this is a Justin II and sophia coin and its from the Byzantine empire between 565 to 578 A.D

I feel sad that you used chemicals on those Roman coins. Distilled water only, I have cleaned hundreds of roman coins, Each one can take up to 4 to 6 hours if you have the patience, Using chemicals causes pitting on the coin and it does not look good, Do it properly & you will be rewarded Love your work.🙂

The unknown coin is probably an early Byzantine coin - I don't know which one it is. The M, means it's 40 nummi, according to the Greek numbering system. These are also known as follis. The follis was reintroduced as a large bronze coin (40 nummi) in 498, with the coinage reform of Anastasius, which included a series of bronze denominations with their values marked in Greek numerals. Edit: Based on the crosses above their heads, my guess is the two figures are Heraclius and Heraclius Constantine, from 610-641. It's similar to a follis from Nikomedia.

Oh no you have ruined them 😮🙈

This is one of my areas of expertise, been cleaning ancients for 20 years and the golden age is gone. Now uncleaned coins are picked over so badly you really do get mostly junk unless you know where a few good sources are. Reall the goal is to preserve the coin with its green/brown/black smooth patina, because the patina has displaced the surface detail in most cases. Your solution stripped the patina leaving not many good coins. The one at 6:58 looks a bit better because it has silver content. Its an Antoninianus of emperor Aurelian. The coin at 8:10 looks like Valens (can't read the legend completely) and is a common late Roman empire type. Stripped of patina its not much more than a curiousity but its got nice detail for the type. 12:28 is a campgate of Constantine I and you can see the mint mark, it was struck at Siscia. Your enigma coins is certainly a Byzantine follis, the two figures on the from could be a number of combinations of rulers, the reverse appears to be way off-centered (not uncommon), the large M is the denomination mark (follis) but it also appears to possibly be overstruck on a predecessor's coin. Not sure. But certainly Byzantine.

I like these types of episodes, seeing these coins is very interesting!

Don't use metal scrapers!!

I just came across your channel last week and I have been home all week sick so I have gone all the way back to the beginning. I am up to five years. I love your finds and how your whole family pitched in.

How cool!!please do another video to update us with the coin info! Very interesting and cool! Maybe it was from the templar age

No matter what I am watching your channel comes on I watch

What a fascinating project! Thanks for pointing out that you only did this because the coins had no value otherwise. You know to never, ever clean a coin that's worth something.

What a great episode! I've followed you for a few years now, and you're still full of surprises.

Wow. That was interesting. Can’t wait to hear the history.

I love that you work to find new and interesting content to show us. I loved this.

Use a toothpick for scraping

Very interesting Alex. One time I got a Jerusalem coin in Jesus time and I gave to my sister . Love old coins❤😊

Cool coins Alex!! Nice bit of history there.

The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! Right? But wait! There's been a change! The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!

Excellent history knowledge!

I wonder if you used an ultrasonic cleaner with your solution

Alexander, That looked like fun, tedious but fun:) Cheers, Rik Spector

Interesting post. Thanks for including us

I too love holding something someone in the past held. Excellent video ❤

Amazing video...i know nothing about coinsbut throughly enjoyed and the time period is amazing ....🥰🥰

Very interesting, I love this kind of history!

15:00 I noticed you occasionally turning this coin to the reverse and then rolling it (to see which way is right side up). If it's a coin, the reverse would flip top over bottom to remain properly viewable. If it's a token, turn it side to side for the coin to remain properly viewable.

When cleaning ancient coins you should try and leave as much of the green/black patina as possible. Scraping away until you get to the underlying copper greatly reduces the value of the coin.

These look mostly as metal detector finds, and by just looking at them in their rougher shape, they are late Roman and early Byzantine coins.

Thanks Alex!

Great episode.

Those are awesome, thank you for sharing ❤

What a fun treasure hunt!

Totally enjoyable video!

Fascinating! I’m a history geek.😊

Years ago I bought one of these lots. So many of the coins were broken or very tiny. I think your coins are nicer. I didn't know about the cleaning solution.

Fun to Watch the process! And how Nice the Crud preserved Them💯 Did you rinse of in water to stop the process??😁

Very Interesting!

Those coins are gorgeous!!!!

This was fascinating!

The coins are awesome.......imagine Roman history coming alive to tell stories thanks to Alex! Alex, mudlarkers in England use a solution with electric wire and they come out almost totally clean. Just a thought.

I have a bunch of ancient Roman coins too, so I'm anxious to see what happens!!!

This was absolutely amazing. I watched it when you found them but I don't know but I finished it because I live in a nursing sometime and I had to stop because they need me to do something.😊

Hello Everyone, I watch a mudlarking group that might have a idea what coin that is, Si-Finds And Nicola White are a group of people who collect from the River Thames and several other places. They might have a clue. Chill Bill, Nugget Noggin are also enthusiastic about coins. British Museum of Artifacts, (is a good guess on the title there), might have a clue too. Very historically accurate attempt by the whole group. Really enjoyed the video. And I will be glad to watch again.

Fascinating thanks for sharing ❤

So interesting. Thanks!

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

It’s the age-old argument between leaving the age patina on the coin or removing the dirt and polishing it up. You have many numismatists (coin experts?) leaving comments. They are the experts. Interesting vid.

About 35 years ago at Birks Jewelers store, they brought in sunken treaure from an old ship. You could view these gold coins or buy one, which was very expensive back then

So fascinating to me- such history 😮

Very cool Alex 😎

It looked like one of the coins was clipped - this was done at one time when coins were actually made of precious metals and people took clippings This was stopped as the coins were potentially getting devalued and the use of base metals introduced

You know your product better than I do, but I am surprised that you never replaced the old murky stuff with a new bath. Also, if you have the patience for it, you might want to try gently bouncing a medium to soft straight bristle brush on the coins while they are in the bath.

COOL!!! Do take care. Fl., USA

You need a magnifying glass to see the coins

The portcullis you showed on some of the coins was still on British three penny bits until they went out of mint in the 1960s!

This is so interesting for me

I did enjoy this .

Fascinating stuff.

The coins look in better shape than some currently in circulation.

It's like traveling back in time

By the way Si-Finds had a video he used a Silicone nib pen to remove more residue with. Fun one to watch. You might like it too.

Really cool!

Ouch! You dont depatinate ancient coins like this! 😭

That cleaning stuff was fantastic

You might want to get one of those cell phone microscopes that you can attach over your phone camera. You can get some pretty good pictures using that. Plus it's fun to mess around with. ☺️

This is very interesting

I too enjoyed this.

How fascinating!

Fun haul to check one by one’s.. left over can be for art, craft, display… to be reuse in a nice way! Do not discard

wow!!! so amazing

Just started watching, if it doesn’t work I bet you know an artist who could use them!

That was SO interesting to see!! I can never get enough of ancient history. I mean, a coin in the era that Jesus was walking around? That's such a special time to have an actual, real artefact from! I can't help but imagine you with the loup to the eye to see what's on the coins. My grandfather was a gold and silver smith, and he used to have this loup he could clamp with his eyebrow and cheek, he sort of just "popped it on his eye", to inspect whatever he was working on. A very happy memory. I miss my grandpa. If it were my choice, I'd want to see every single one of those coins close up in all angles, and if that video would be three hours long, I'd be still watching intently. All this, just to say, that was awesome to see, thank you! 🥰

Find them quite often in the uk metal detecting.

Interesting, leaves a lot of questions.

Hey Alex would electrolysis work? You can make a small tank pretty easy with an old battery charger.

Very interesting....❤

Real interesting to watch. I know cleaning old coins is usually a huge no no. But like these being just not identifiable junk I'm sure you cannot go backwards. For people like me who aren't as worried about investment value and just fascinated in holding something close to 2000 years old is very cool. If you are actually to get your money back would be super interested. To hold a coin that could have been in circulation while Jesus walked to earth would be super interesting to me. The opportunity to see something that he could have seen. Not the exact coin but just the image. Really cool.

How about putting the rough one in a fresh batch of the rust remover and they may be better

It is probably Theodosious and Justina. He was the last Byzantine Emperor to rule over a sort of unified Empire. His wife Justina was a co-ruler who helped keep him in power during the nucca riots.

Awesome

🙋‍♀️❤️. Be careful! Coins are addicting! ❤️❤️❤️

That was actually a really nice Emperor Aurelian Antoninianus coin

On the junky ones there is no real harm in using a 9v or 12v wallwart / phone charger to perform electrolytic cleaning on them. I used to do it often. Just put the negative lead alligator clipped on the coin and the positive lead on a sacrificial metal object like old junk spoon or maybe a carbon rod if you have one. Leave them sitting in a cup of salt water, perhaps one tablespoon salt per cup. The coin will fizz with bubbles like alka seltzer and after ten minutes the crud just falls right off. Use more salt if you don't see fizzing start. Don't breath the vapors and wear gloves because of hydrogen gas and chromium being released. Pull the coin out every ten minutes and scrub with a plastic brush on a piece of wood in the sink. It will make a mess. Repeat the fizzy process a few times per coin to see what you have. After that I would throw them in a vibratory tumbler with (dry) black walnut shell grit for a few days. It really scrubs them and can create a more natural looking surface / glossy patina. Walnut shell grit is sold for cleaning brass shells for people who do reloading of ammo. Don't use the electrolytic procedure on silver plated coins because it will remove whatever remains of the silver.

If you put the solution and the coins in a old crockpot and leave them, the solution will work better and faster. Leave it in a well ventilated area to be safe.

OMG! You are going to clean the coins?! I hope it’s with nothing more than a brush and some water.

By accident I discovered a nice cleaner/polish for copper and silver, Mrs Meyers Clean Day Cream Cleaner with a soft toothbrush. It's a baking soda formula, works great on my copper and silver jewelry and pennies to remove light patina/tarnish and restore shine. I haven't tried it on really heavy copper patina but it worked well on a piece of blackened silver.

16:00 I see you have the Pyrex Starburst on display.🇨🇦

The Alex version of the TikTok trend: 'This is my Roman Empire'

Hundreds of millions of people died, while those pieces of struck metal stayed under the ground.

Interesting project but please use a toothbrush or bamboo skewers instead of metal for picking at the coins.

You did very well young man. Perhaps using toothpicks for cleaning would be process you develop, for the restoration of the coins. Nevertheless, they are your coins now. It was a great find. Well done!

(7:00) thats a fine coin!

The unidentified coin looks very similar to a gold coin with Leo IV The Khazar and Constantine VI from 778 AD I found on Thomas Numismatics.

I wonder if you could get some of the persistent crusting off by heating the coins and dropping them in cold water. Thermal shock the crap off :D

rest in piece to any patina, plus that metal brush probably did a great job of tearing up some nice coins, its a shame when people who aren't know ledged in a hobby go and tear up pieces that someone with better knowledge could have done a really good job with

I looked online. Is it possible the coin you were wondering about is a Heraclius 613 ad Byzantine hexagram coin?

It just amazes me to imagine who once held those coins in their hands. Just a person. Maybe even a Dad. But would you think they could have thought when holding it, who one day, would hold it again? I hope you get some info on these Alex. Just really fascinating. ✌🏻🤍

I rather buy a lot then one old coin I find the history interesting and seeing something different then it being uncleaned