>>20108266Thanks fren, without Frogbro's guidance I would have remained lost in the wilderness, it's good to find my way back home.
>>20108318The main ointment I use on the coins is "Renaissance" micro-crystalline wax polish, developed by the British Museum for protecting, preserving and beautifying metal artifacts. I apply it as the finishing touch after I'm done cleaning a coin, it needs to dry a while and can then be dry-brushed and rubbed with a cloth to make it smooth and shiny.
One of my favorite new cleaning inventions is this tube (and another even smaller one) taken from a telescoping metal radio antenna, into which I inserted a twisted and compressed length of fine brass wool. The protruding portion at the working end can be adjusted by pushing/pulling from the back and can be trimmed with scissors for ideal performance for the specific job. Under the 20x microscope it is wonderfully effective at cleaning up surfaces after using diamond tipped abrasive needle tools or sharpened pins and getting into minuscule details to scrub out dirt, while being gentle enough to not harm the coin provided you're careful. I've used fine steel wool in a bigger tube before but bràss wool in tiny tubes is a game changer, it's simple but I'm quite proud of this discovery lol.