Tried to conserve a Seated Half Dollar

Not sure how I did or if I made this old gal gradable (if she ever was). The coin had borderline environmental damage. I kinda felt she needed to be saved. It's a low to mid AU and I could see luster underneath the dark, yellow/brown tone. Seeing as how I only paid $110 when I bought it as an XF, I figured it wouldn't be a huge risk to try and conserve her. So I soaked her in acetone for a while, then slowly gave her the watered down dip treatment. The little black spots haven't come completely off, but they don't really bother me. Not sure what else to do if anything. There are no hairlines, though, so she won't get dinged for cleaning I don't think. I'm just hoping I turned her into an AU50 or AU53 and made her worth about double what I paid. Your thoughts? (edited the after pic to show luster better).

 

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My thoughts?

Never dip a circulated coin. The result of this experiment won't pass a casual first glance at a TPG, unfortunately. Your only hope here is to pocket piece it. On the bright side, I don't think the previous color was original, either, and doubt the coin would have straight-graded. There were already the classic "much darker in the tight areas" indications of a previous stripping, and all you removed was the new toning.

 

I feel like it'll grade... maybe. But in any case I'm sending in this week. I'll post the result in a few weeks when it's ready. Good news or bad.

 

Fair enough.

 

Seemed like in hand that it had been improperly stored. I didn't think it had been cleaned ever before. But I don't know it all.

 

The surfaces look very unnatural, but I have seen worse in straight-grade holders.

 

I'm torn between trusting your in-hand opinion, and knowing your imaging skills are up to par so I can basically believe what I see.

 

I think the TPG will see it as cleaned.
Loss of most of the toning around the devices is a giveaway to being dipped.

 

Maybe so, but the TPG's straight-grade dipped coins every day, don't they?

 

Dipping or otherwise "conserving" circulated coins is always a crap-shoot. This might have a chance since it is relatively high-grade. Cleaning seems to always leave the "ring-around-the-devices" tell-tale. Wonder if sonic cleaning would do anything about that?

 

The original coin was much nicer to look at then the dipped one is ewww

 

IMHO it was ugly to start with and still is - although I prefer the look of the dipped version - that said, the before and after dipping pictures are great. Helps me see the results of dipping in a new way! I'd love to see more of those (before and after dipping). And good quality pictures - thanks for posting.

 

It's not ideal to look at in either state, but knowing the market like I do, most buyers (uninformed tho they may be) prefer the post dipped one.

 

I agree with the sentiment about the market. I also prefer the dipped coin over the original coin. Would I buy it as a problem-free? No. But I would pay more for it as the original surfaces had butt-ugly toning.

 

Personally I prefer the first. But I agree ugly either way. A decent chance it'll grade tho

 

Will be interesting to see the results, thanks!

 

I would love to have seen the coin just after the acetone. Wish it still had some of it's skin left. Maybe a few less dips. Still a nice coin but I feel it could have ended up a bit better. I'm at 50/50 on a straight grade. Great buy at that price.

 

Can't wait to see the results of the grading. I know I did not like the first set of pictures of the coins. And the second set - well better, but still not something I really like. Good Luck.

 

Hmmm,
I thought acetone was a solvent that only affected organic compounds on the coin surface. I would not think you could attribute any surface characteristics, such as luster, to an acetone dip. It seems reasonable that the efficacy of the dip may affect how much of the crud around the devices gets removed.

Are we confusing dipping in acetone with stripping, in which a chemical reaction occurs with the contaminants, and a concurrent reaction with the metal also alters the surface of the coin?

Am I wrong about this?

 

I think you read it wrong. I used acetone first to remove any organics. That didn't do much, so I used EZEST dip very watered down to lift off the ugly dark tone.