PSA: Vinegar dating is the best

It won't dissolve completely, but leaving it in too long with whisk off so much of the upper layer of metal that the date will go back to being unreadable. Too long really depends on the coin, but I had a particular nickel in for an hour and a half and it had a decent date. I wanted a better/more visible date, so I left it in for four. By that point, the date had gone back to being null.
But that's using the H2O2+vinegar. Using just vinegar you can leave it in for much longer without overdoing it.

There may be something to do with the fact that the peroxide I used expired in 2013, but I haven't tried fresh peroxide so I don't know how much of a difference less-powerful peroxide has. I would imagine fresh peroxide works quicker and stronger than old peroxide, though.

 

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I read your nickel coin dissolved in peroxide. Thanks for explaining it was combined with vinegar.

 

"Silv-A-Date", is like the "Lost Dutchman's Mine". Many have heard of it but very few have seen it.

Joey, could you please post a picture of one of your SLQ's that you restored the the dates on.

I've also been looking on Ebay to see if someone has a old dusty bottle of it for sale.

 

I remember the SLQ date restorer stuff. Came in a little bottle just like the restorer for 5c and it worked equally as well.

 

Right you are, coinquest. 'Silv-A-Date' was in a clear round plastic bottle, about 3" high, with a screw-on cap. I have my bottle of 'Nic-A-Date' from the '60s right here in front of me (yeah, I can't throw anything out!). It's in a flat oval plastic bottle, also about 3" high, with a push-on cap. The warning on it says it contains ferric chloride and hydrochloric acid, and can be harmful if swallowed! It still has about 1/2" of liquid in it. The price on it is $1.00, and was made by the Nic-A-Lene Company in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.
I remember having to throw out my 'Silv-A-Date' because the bottle split right below the cap. Geez, what would that go for on eBay today?
I will try to post a pix of an acided SLQ when I have access to them.
Oh, and I believe I got the 'Silv-A-Date' through an ad in COINage magazine. For some reason the dealer Danny Crabb comes to mind. I'll have to check my old issues.
Just checked my coin spendature book that I started in 1966 and still use. I bought the bottle of 'Nic-A-Date' in 1967 for 79¢ at Korvette's in Yonkers NY.
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Hah! What a memory! Just found in my spenditure book that I bought 2 bottles of 'Date restorer for silver coins' in 1967 from dealer Danny Crabb for $3.00.

 

As I've said more than once before, I'd love to be proven wrong on this. Once we've got a demonstration, we can start to figure out why you can't find restored-date silver on the market (eBay or elsewhere), and why you can't buy the restorer now (when you can still get even more powerful acids as part of "PM test kits").

If it bubbled and made a metallic smell, as I've read elsewhere, it was almost certainly just nitric acid, nothing to do with cyanide.

 

OK, I took some pix of my acid-dated SLQs. I had to do a lot of Photoshopping to get them anywhere near clear. I don't have any of the fancy equipment some members have. The first pix is 1918D, the others are all 1924.Most of the dates on other ones are not discernible. I never uploaded pix to CT, so let's see how this goes.

 

That's incredible. Actually seeing acid-dated SILVER is nothing short of incredible. Thanks for sharing. I'm sure some of the members here are going to go nuts when they see this!

 

Ok.. I tried the white vinegar and left the coins in over the weekend and nothing, nada, zilch, zip.

So I tried apple vinegar last night and "Bingo" all 4 of the coins grew dates...

As you can see it gives the coins a slightly porous texture, which is to be expected when bathing them in acid.

 

The product was called Nic-A-Silver and made by same company that makes Nic-A-Date. It had limited effectiveness but I had the most luck improving the date on a 3 cent silver or bringing out the "D" on a 21 Mercury dime. Sure wish I could find some NOS of that stuff. It did not leave an "etched" look on the coin but would sure stain your finger purple if you accidently touched it.

 

Purple, or black? Silver nitrate dissolved will turn your finger black. Nitric acid by itself will turn your skin yellow (and dead, like any other blister). I'd expect nitric acid carrying some silver nitrate to yield some shade of brown. I haven't gotten a purple stain from anything that wasn't already purple. @V. Kurt Bellman , does any of this ring any wet-lab-related bells with you?

 

There are any number of solutions that if one gets enough silver in it, it WILL stain skin a bluish/purplish cast. There are guys who actually drink something they call colloidal silver and they get agyria, a fairly benign version of metal poisoning - their skins turn BLUE.

 

I'm pulling your teeth and yanking your chain!

Any updates? I've got a bottle of vinegar and a whole lotta Buffalo Nickels!

Would love to see the time lapse results!

 

I had one in apple vinegar for about half a week, looks like 1919 but it's so faint I can't be sure, and I've had another in there 36 hrs and nothing yet. Did you add hydrogen peroxide or was it pure vinegar?

 

It was grocery store apple cider vinegar and drug store peroxide. Probably a 3:1 vinegar to peroxide. I forget, it’s been 8 years

 

And 8 years since the question was asked!

 

Glad this thread was revived, very interesting info on the long lost silver date restorer from many years ago called "Nic-A-Silver" some believed it never existed . All we need now is a photo of one of those old bottles.

 

Okay. While you wait for that, I'll watch some paint dry....

 

2032, photo posted.

 

HUH? 2032?? I might not make it that long.