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The History of our Coins
Our coins come from the ancient town of Philipopolis.
Philipopolis was situated north of Greece in what is presend day Bulgaria. The
Roman city was the birthplace of Philip II of Macedonia and flourished during
the Roman empire. Here is a breif history of the town:
The Eternal City, as Rome is conventionally called, is
much younger than Plovdiv. So are Athens, Carthage and Constantinople. A
contemporary of Troy, Plovdiv is a city upon layers of
cities and an epoch upon layers of epoch. Plovdiv is all is one: a Thracian and
a classical Greek polis, the pride of Philip II of
Macedonia ( that is where the old name of the town Philipopolis comes from ),
the capital of Thrace under the Roman Empire, a center of Byzantinism a
stronghold of the Bulgarians, a dream of the crusaders, one of the prettiest
cities of the Otoman Empire, Bulgaria's first capital after the Liberation.
Situated on three hills in the Thracian Plain, encircled
by the slow running waters of the Maritza river, Bulgaria's second largest city
today, Plovdiv has a 24 centuries long history and is one of the ancient
crossroads between East and West.
Landmarks remaining from Roman times include the
Philippopolis Amphitheatre and the restored 2nd century Antique Theatre. The
marble-tiled Forum, the Ethnogrphic museum, the art
galleries, churches and the street of folk arts and crafts are major landmarks
of Old Plovdid.
The Old Plovdiv on Trimontzium hill is famous fot its
National Revival architecture (from 18th-19th c.). Many of the houses are now
museums: the Ethnographic Museum, the Museum of the National
Revival and the National Liberation struggles, the Alphonse de
Lamartine museum house.
The Sts. Constantine and Helena Church, completed in 1832,
contains murals painted by the best known Zahari Zograph, in 1836, while the St.
Marina Church (1852 - 53) has a beautifully carved iconostasis.
There are many more things to see in Plovdiv: the
permanent exhibition of the famous Bulgarian artist Zlatyu Boyadjiev (1903 -
1976) who loved to paint Plovdiv; the workshops of the old masters of Bulgarian
arts and crafts on Strumna Street - coppersmiths, leather workers, potters, etc.
Taken from:
http://www.peakview.bg/museum_towns/plovdiv
Cleaning Instructions
The main objective to cleaning coins is not to
reduce them to bare metal lumps. You should remove the dirt and encrustations
and leave the base coin alone. A coin with its patina* intact will be worth
considerably more than a bare metal coin.
*PATINA is a
thin film of corrosion, usually green, that forms on copper and bronze as a
result of oxidation.
The patina of an ancient coin has taken
centuries to form and has helped to protect the metal of the coin from the
elements and further corrosion. An ancients coins patina can appear as green,
brown, black and many shades in between. It is part of a coins history and as
such, should be left as intact as possible. The value of a coin that has had the
patina removed can be severely reduced.
Ancient silver coins can also have a form of
patina on them, but we call that Toning. Toning can range from a very light to a
very dark grey. A properly toned silver coin can be very pleasing to look at, as
opposed to the bright silver coins that are so common today. So please, if you
have a toned silver coin let it be.
- Put the coins in a glass and fill the
glass with olive oil until the coins are covered. Leave them in the olive oil
for 3-4 days. The olive oil will penetrate the dirt and soften it.
- After the 3-4 days, take the coins out and
pat them dry with a paper towel. Mix a batch of TSP (Tri-Sodium Phosphate...a
cleaner available in most home repair or paint shops) with one teaspoon in
warm water. Put the coins in the TSP solution for 5-10 minutes. This will
remove the olive oil and some of the dirt.
- Rinse the coins in clean water to remove
the TSP residue.
- Take an old toothbrush or stiff bristle
brush (plastic, fiberglass, etc.) and gently brush away at the coins.
- Examine the coins. At this point, some of
them will be clean and identifiable. The ones that are not should go back into
the olive oil for another 3-4 days soaking.
- Some coins will have dirt in recesses,
between the letters of the inscription for example. See the Finishing Touch
section for tips on this.
- Repeat this process until you are
satisfied with the result. It sometimes takes well over a month to achieve the
maximum cleaning results.
Finishing Touches
Once you are satisfied that a coin is about as
clean as it will get, you will probably need to touch up some small areas.
Small areas (for example between the letters
of an inscription) can be cleaned with a steady hand, bright light and a variety
of tools. Which tools you will use will depend upon your personal preferences
and what you feel comfortable using.
*A special
note should be made about the last one. Take a glue gun (the type that uses glue
sticks and can be found in any arts and crafts store) and put a blob of glue on
a coin. Let the glue harden and then remove it. The glue should be relatively
easy to remove. If it works right, the glue will lift the dirt from the hard to
reach areas. With a few reservations I can tell you that it works. When you pry
the hardened glue off it pulls the dirt out of even the tiniest spot. It may not
get all of it off with the first attempt so multiple applications may be needed.
Make sure the glue has hardened before trying to remove it. The reservations
are:
If you are working on a 'silvered' coin
the glue may take the dirt and the silvering off at the same time. So don't use
it on that silvered antoninianus. If the coin has subsurface pitting, then the
glue may expose the pits.
So, if you are careful about which coin
you use it on, then this technique will work quite well.
Identification
The definative book on identifying your ancient
Roman and Greek coins is "HANDBOOK OF ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN COINS" By Zander
H. Klawans, Edited by K.E. Bressett. This is the book that all the best ancient
coin enthusiasts use. It contains pictures of just about every ancient coin,
tells you the name, and gives a brief description.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! It can be
purchased from Amazon.com for only about $10. Click below for a link to a
review and to purchase the book Amazon.com:
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