I have a V-Nickel with some kind of black substance on it. It's in a few places, but it borders some of the stars, and its filled inside the centers of the date. I tried using a dremel with a soft plastic brush tip with soapy water. It did nothing.
I have a mercury dime with the same kind of stuff on it, except its everywhere. I just left it on there cause it defines the coin.
This substance is whatever covered the coin before it was cleaned. Can be natural patina, dirt, chemicals, rust etc.
It looks like someone before you did a pretty severe cleaning job to get it to that point. I spent a lot of time practicing various cleaning techniques on throw-away coins. I've had some nice results with silver coins, but not so much with nickel or copper coins. In fact, you can do some real damage to nickel, copper or clad coins if you try what works on silver. BADTHAD sells a product called VERDI-CARE™ that does a nice job (imo) preserving copper coins. I haven't tried his product on nickel coins. I would recommend you read up on the topic and not be afraid to experiment...as long as it's, as I say, only on "throw-away" coins. Good Luck! :thumb:
It's a combination of pocket lint, skin cells, dirt, grease, oil, and smudge that has become partially petrified in the nooks and crannies of your coin. It's common to uncleaned circ coins and the chances are good you'll muck the coin up before you'll get that gunge off.
I would never clean anything like a proof or a real smoothed surface coin like that. I've done it plenty of times, even looked at it under a scope. Can't tell any different. There are already tons of micro scratches from circulation.
Possible I might not be able to tell either, but there are others that probably can. At the same time there are others that use different techniques safely that I would not try myself. There is another person around here uses sharp soft green rose thorns to clean out dirt on device. I tried it on a modern pocket change coin and it was way to much work to really get the dirt out.
I'll bet the entire coin looked just like that before it was scrubbed. I'll wager it's toning that has progressed into corrosion.
Here is something that I don't think will harm the coin that you can try. Coat the surface liberally with a coating of White Glue (Elmers or something like that). Let it dry thoroughly. Peel off the glue as one layer and if you are lucky, the grunge will stick to the glue. I have seen this done for LP records and it performs miracles. Other suggestion, soak in Xylene or acetone.
Rethinking my Elmer's glue post, if you try this (and I think I might) clean off any residue with acetone and water.
Try it with some pocket change first. I am not sure it will work. When that dirt gets into the devices it can be very tough to get out - from what I have read.
You used a what on the coin? A Dremel? Sorry...I don't mean to insult. But if the coin was junk before then, it is probably no worse now. Lance.
Elmer's Glue? Is responding to yourself like talking to yourself? Anyway, if I suggest it, I should try it. I grabbed a couple of coins that were laying around and scanned them. I then applied a coat of Elmer's School Glue (a standard white glue) and let it dry overnight and peeled it. Here are the results: I am getting ready to take a trip, but I put a heavy coat on the coins and will let it dry for a couple of weeks.
