How To Unbend Bent Silver Hammered Coins - Tutorial, page 3
Simple Technique for Straightening Coins Without Special Tools and Annealing
(...CONTINUED from previous page)
• As the gap became wide enough to insert two blades, I did so, placing their edges towards the bend. Now the most important part of the process was not to break the bend area of the piece while unbending it all the way. I placed one blade flat upon one side of the coin fragment on my table, and pushed another blade against the other side, widening a gap, until I almost straightened the piece. I had to be very patient to do it extremely slow and pay close attention to the bent area. a wooden block to flatten the coin at last.
• After I straightened a main piece of the coin half, I decided to put the two coin fragments together and laminate them. I placed them on a length of Clear 2-inch Packing Tape and, using a toothpick, arranged and linked them in the correct order.
Coin Fragments On Clear Tape
• Then I placed the clear tape over the fragments and applied light pressure to make sure the adhesive tape surfaces firmly stick to one another and seal the coin fragments inside.
• And now my fragmented and straightened coin half was (almost) "in one piece"! I cut the excess tape around, and my specie was ready to be identified.
Half of Abbassid Dirhem Hammered Under Rule of al-Muqtadir (908 AD - 932 AD)
Silver Dirhems (Dirhams) of the Abbassids were minted at more than sixty different mints which makes collecting Dirhems so interesting. The silver dirhams were struck in many Mediterranean countries and the Byzantine Empire. The Abbassid Caliphate was found in Kufa in 750 AD, and was the third of the four major Islamic caliphates established after the death of Prophet Muhammad. Inscriptions on reverses of this type Dirhems are supposed to read: "Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah". Dirhams were used as currency in Europe - in areas with Viking connections, between the 10th and 12th centuries.
• Every time I unearth fragments of coins broken by plows, I use this simple laminating technique to put them together and add them to my coin collection. Here is another example of the fragmented silver coin (I could not find the last piece - gotta get back to that spot! :)).
Fragmented Livonian Schilling, circa 1379
The only reason, I believe, the coin's fragment did not break during unbending was that the hammered coin's millesimal fineness (see details on page 16 of my Tutorial on Cleaning Coins) was of a high value - "700". If the coin's silver content was below 20% in the coin's metal alloy, it would be impossible to unbend the bent piece without annealing which is the must-use in the process of straightening the bent coins.
Happy coin straightening!
To learn simple and effective methods for cleaning silver coins, please visit this page.
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