I have a few extra acid treated buffalo nickels. Mostly P mint mark ones. Does anyone collect them. Willing to give some away. If you have any no dated buffalo nickels. I’ll swap them even. Also will tell how to cook them
The dealer(s) in Flagstaff,Az as well as some in NM sell them for incorporating into hatbands and other sourvenirs. Usually $1-5 each, although they trade by the bag usually. Jim
Ferric (III) Chloride is commonly used. Amazon has it at about $25 quart, other sizes available. I have used it for PC boards, brighten old corrode cents for art use, copper tubing before soldering, etc. CAUTION: It is bad stuff.!!! ..for chemists,etc, Jim
OWho would like a complete set of acid washed Buffalos...in fact one of the better sets done.. all dates,mm,and types ....I took it in trade years ago. I just dug this out two weeks ago to take to a show. I believe that 6this set came from Az. As the person aquired from did say he purchased it out west.
I consider an acid treated (or any other method to bring out markings) to be a legitimate and collectable coin. The cold hard facts are it is a coin with markings as struck.
This set was nicely done.."not nic a date" the entire side of the coin obv. & rev. Has been treated so its an even look , not a dark spot over a date. It sounds like it was done as Jim described.
That what I’m talking about people are 50/50 on that stuff. It’s just plain ass fun to me. People always wanna know how you do it
I agree. This is especially necessary so as to avoid missing a possible over date, two feather variety or key date. There will always be value to these coins, albeit less than not having treated them but you can always sell a treated coin, if done properly and save for a better one of the same. They also make space fillers until you can afford a better coin.
You're doing it right. That's how you bring up the date and mint mark on these ones you can't tell. White vinegar works as well as anything for that. It'll smooth out the surface some, that's the only drawback. Not a big deal given these coins are shot to begin with. A date and mint mark is only going to add, not subtract, from the value. These coins aren't going to end up in the best collections, but who the hell cares? I agree with Tommy. While they're acid-treated, sure, they're still collectible.
Stop and think about it. Ancient coins that we clean and identify are in a similar situation. We have little or no idea of what they are until we perform several steps to remove the dirt. Many times this includes some degree of chemical exposure.
I used ferric chloride to etch PC boards back when I was a teen. For nickel restoration, I much prefer a white-vinegar soak. It leaves the coin with a uniform appearance, even though they clearly aren't "original surfaces". It doesn't produce the unsightly blob around the date that Nic-A-Date usually leaves.
My LCS has ND rolls for $5 I popped a couple open and 2 or 3 per roll were partial date Think I’m gonna grab a few next week
I've been using vinegar for quite a while. I've soaked some coins for a couple of months. They don't always bring out a clear date but many do. Hey, it was worth a nickle when I started so what's the harm.