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I've just straightened out two hammered pennies and they are very bright silver now. Is a dip in bleach best to re-tone them or another method ?

Hi Chris i believe bleach will make them go very black,then you will have to rub them in foil to get the highlights back again.

Yes I agree this works well for the coins I have straightened just keep your eye on them when they are in the bleach.

Cheers for your answers boys, might try it. I was hoping for something a bit less severe.

I've not tried the bleach method.

There's several things you can try - depends on how far you want to go :)

I personally have found that the acid I use when I'm cleaning corrosion off coins, when spent, can be mixed with a little Ciel hand soap (or some other brands) - if you rub the coin with this mixture you can basically have almost any colour toning you want (purples, blues, yellows, even dark toning if you leave it for long enough).

You could also find someone who smokes a lot and leave the coin in their house for a while.

Or you could leave them outside on a flat roof for a couple of months - I used to use this method for bronzes too.

These coins are a voided long cross and a John shortcrooss. I've put a split in the longcross but the John coin has turned out well. I'm struggling to id mint and moneyer as the coins are so bright after annealing, any more ideas please ?

hope your not still using the hammer and anvyl method chris lol have a look at these 2 vids they show anyone who wants to do it the proper way to do it :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC_WcytrR9I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC_WcytrR9I)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5Q0EFpobME (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5Q0EFpobME)

ive herd a boiled egg,mash the egg cover the egg and coin together its suopposed to work
or a candle that puts a black soot on it
or blech but dont leave it in long and then spit and foil

The longcross was already split but the shortcross has turned out well. Both of them are very bright now and hard to id (especially with my eyes ).  I just want a contrast to make an id easier.

Very good vidios Jason.

Get a little bit of yellow sulphur (Gardening suppliers sell it to kill fungus on greenhouse plants and kill bugs too) and home made iron filings and heat it up with a small butane torch. Put the burnt remains in a jam jar.
Put your coin into the middle of a cotton wool ball soaked in water and drop the ball into a the jar. Carefully add some dilute acid to the bottom of the jar (I use a bit of industrial cleaner that is 6% hydrochloric acid). Make a small hole in the jar lid and tighten on the jar. Leave the jar outdoors and away from kids or pets etc for 8 hours.  The result is a coin that is chemically identical to a hammered coin thats been in the ground for years. Rub it with a bit of foil and you get that smelly gas coming off.

After hearing all these methods I think bleach is far the simplest and on the whole the safest too but make sure you degrease the coin first, nail varnish remover will do the trick, or you can end up with a perfect black and silver fingerprint to bring out the high points either aluminium foil or I use Duraglit silver wadding as it's far more controllable ;)

Never rub coins in foil, I can't believe people are still suggesting this, its leaves your coin covered in a mass of small scratches.

True Win the rubbing action should be your fingers over the foil and not the foil over the coin but after 6 or 7 hundred years knocking about in the soil the majority are pretty scratched anyway ;)

Thanks for the replies gentlemen, I think that I will give them the bleach treatment and I'll let you know how I get on.

I've had a few coins with fingerprints on them :) - even had a Samian-ware pot with fingerprints on it too!

Nail varnish remover often contains Acetone - it is a very good solvent - isopropyl alcohol is good too (known as IPA)