Always thought field cleaning was overkill until I wrecked a Roman coin

I dropped $120 on a cheap ultrasonic cleaner from Amazon last year and thought I was being smart... three months later I put a 2nd century Roman bronze in there and it turned into a green blob. A guy from the local archaeology society told me I should have just used distilled water and a soft brush. Now I spend the $20 on proper conservation supplies instead. Anyone else learn this lesson the hard way with coins or small finds?

2 comments

2 Comments

skyler_mitchell1mo agoMost Upvoted

This is one of those things where being cheap ends up costing more in the long run. Same thing happened to me with a pair of boots I tried to fix with super glue instead of just taking them to a cobbler.

taylor_fox1mo ago

Had a buddy do this with a cheap laptop charger years ago. Bought one of those off-brand ones for like 15 bucks online, figured it was the same thing. Three weeks later the thing started smoking and fried his charging port. Took it to a repair shop and the guy said it shorted out the motherboard too. Ended up paying like 200 bucks to get it fixed and then bought the official charger for 80. Definitely one of those you get what you pay for moments.