PCGS restoration. Yuck.

Yeah. Lesson learned for sure. And again, sorry I can't find the before pics.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Ok, I have sorta accepted that dipping silver is 'natural' rather than doctoring, but when one starts selectively 'dipping' areas of a coin, I see that even less as acceptable. How is that different from selectively 'toning' say the rim of a coin for the album effect?? If one is going to rant about artificially changing the 'tone' on one part of a coin ( + gain tone effect) how is this different from changing the 'tone' on another part of a gain ( - tone effect) ? Even if it can be done, and I know it can, Shouldn't it be caused Artificial and doctoring?

Bravo for the conservation company to do it all or none, and let the chips fall.

 

Im thinking of sending this one in, for PCGS restoration.

 

If you want the hole plugged with silver instead of lead it costs extra.

 

I have done it several times but not often. The next time I need to do it I'll make sure to document it and post with details.

 

This is me just firing off the cuff, but I would think it would be no more difficult than laying the coin on a soft towel/cloth, taking whatever size eye dropper you want to use and just dropping dip either on the spot you need removed or the whole side.

Meanwhile have some gloves already on and a ready bowl of distilled water for rinsing so the dip doesn't sit too long and become an over dipped coin.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy

 

Well point taken there. Like I said I was just shooting off the cuff there.

Refining my idea a little bit, and tell me if I am wrong here, but if you dilute the dip by 50% would that extend your time to two seconds? The point that I am asking here is if you dilute it down to 25% strength (or whatever) doesn't that allow time to get it back off the coin?

I imagine, and correct me if I am wrong here, that even a weak 'acid' over time would clean the surface without eating too quickly through the luster. I know you said if you mixed it too weak it wouldn't work, but that is if you are doing the standard 1-2 second dip. Letting a weak solution set for even a few minutes should eat through the bad toning or whatever and not through the luster. Same principle as the one second full strength dip, just don't leave it on too long as a weakened product.

 

I know that, percentages were hypothetical. Proper procedure would be to start extremely low and work your way up. Say 5% and see what happens in 5 seconds. If nothing move up to a 10% dilution for 5 seconds, etc. Tweaking times and dilution percentages until you are comfortable AND can leave the mixture up there for longer than 1 second. Seems to me everyone should be diluting anyway as 1-2 seconds is extremely quick and leaves no room for error.

In my case you actually want a pretty weak solution so it can stay longer without causing damage past the acceptable cleaning desired.

 

Another thing for all the watchers out there. What is the dip diluted with? Regular tap water or distilled water? I would lean towards distilled, but I have never heard anyone say exactly.

 

It wouldn't make any difference due to the comparatively extreme strength dip, as the water wouldn't be evaporating on the the surface. Distilled is more accurate for diluting, but I wouldn't buy any just for that.

Also the chemicals in the dip part can only react with certain # of tone/corrosion molecules, so once they have hit the max, the mix could sit on the coin until they evaporated with no further 'good' action. Which is undesirable. So the answer is to dilute the dip so it reacts completely to your desires, but no longer and then rinse off the residue. How do you know how much and how long? A lot of practice, sorry.

 

That still goes along with what I am saying. If you mix your solution too weak and you leave it on for 60 seconds and nothing happens (actually something DID happen, it was just too minuscule to notice or it wasnt a large effect), then you mix again with something slightly stronger.

What me and Doug are talking about is how to theoretically 'dip' one side of a coin. I said lay it on its side on a towel and apply dip with a dropper to the up facing side to cover that half. AKA dipping one side of the coin.

Dougs response was that the dip is naturally too strong to cover the one side completely without ruining the coin. You cant drop it on and get it off fast enough without over dipping the coin, a general dip is only 1-2 seconds. He also mentioned that Matts method probably had to do with diluting the dip somehow, so I thought that if by diluting the dip with water, you could avoid the risk of over dipping the coin because you are starting on the opposite end of the spectrum. Instead of going full strength and only having 2 seconds to dip and rinse the coin, wouldnt cutting the dip down (diluting it), make it to where you can completely cover the coin, have a reaction with the diluted down dip and surface problem, and still remove the dip before it 'overdips' that one side and ruins it.

My method sounds like it would work out fine with a little trial and error and obviously starting on the diluted end of the spectrum instead of with a full strength or half-strength concoction.

Am I imagining this scenario correctly? I cant really think of how else to halfway dip a coin without just using some sort of chemically protected glove and carefully dipping down until the one surface is covered. That also seems quite easy to do.

I know they make plenty of gloves that dont react to harsh chemicals, even household nitirile gloves may work, i dont know off hand, but you can always test which gloves react with the dip by pouring some in a small cup and dropping the finger of a glove down in it (without your hand in the glove) to see if it starts to react.

I just feel like this problem seems a little too trivial for Doug, and if thats the case, maybe I need to talk about my potential solutions before attempting them. I dont believe he would just say it cant be done without good reason.

 

My thought is similar to Doug, in that I do not think it can be done well without a large number ( 100s) of experiments. I do have some setups that I know would work, but I still think that such is coin doctoring as it is selective. I have to see 'dipping a whole coin ' as a traditionally accepted method, but not partial dipping.

 

I have successfully dipped one side of a Morgan Dollar. The reverse was attractively toned with a crescent rainbow, but the obverse was god awful ugly and splotchy with no color. I held the coin in my hand by the edges and lowered it into the dip so just the one side was immersed, then remove it and rinsed in distilled water. I may have gotten lucky and probably would be too scared to try this with a 4 figure coin, but it worked beautifully. I will add a morgan has quite a bit more thickness than a Capped Bust, and is easier to hold by the edge. Not sure if I would try it again on a bust half, but the Morgan was just so ugly and the reverse so pretty, I couldn't resist, paid off...this time, but just as easily could have gone badly.

 

Likewise, I have done this also, no problem, though it could go wrong, definitely.

 

OK, this popped up as a "new post" and I almost started to add my two cents immediately as I incountered misinformation and the fact that PCGS ruined the coin right from the start.

As this is an interesting thread, I'm going back to read it in full. Nevertheless, take this as gospel:

1. One side of a coin CAN BE CONSERVED while the other is unmolested. Professionals do it all the time and there are proven methods to make sure the contrast between "freshly-dipped white" and the old natural surface are not too stark.

2. Conservation of specific areas and spots is possible.

I have just been told I'm taking Big Money to dinner an need to get off the computer in 10 min. Checking other threads now and will return later but you din't need to know that as WHO CARES.