Restoration Success or Fail

I'm not blessing off on anything that happens on this thread, and please, don't think l'm condoning coin cleaning. I thought I would start a thread about members attempts of "restoration or conservation" of any coin that they have made over the course or their hobby. Was it a success or was it a fail, in your opinion. I'll start out with one that I wasn't comfortable with. A 1886 type 1 Indian Head Cent. It had Verdigris and I really didn't know what to do with it. I tried a quick soak in acetone to remove all the oil that was hiding the green stuff (first two pictures). I then used verdicare for 4 hour. It didn't do very well so I tried it for another 4 hours with a gentle q-tip. It looked better, but had some big flakes in the date and above the reverse crest. Thought I'd try a rose thorn in those areas and it worked pretty well (second two pictures). My opinion is success, but not perfect. I have some fails that I will post, but please, show me what you're coin conservatin success and fails are. Regards, Sting

 

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Here is one of my fails. Before and after obverse views. I know it's a coin that is already ugly so I tried a bit of cleaning that can only be a fail. I'm sort of sending a message, but you may have thought about doing the same thing.

 

Before and after.

Z

 

Once upon a time, there was a new and inexperienced numismatist (me). One day he thought to himself, "I wonder if there is a way to remove those brown spots on my 1967 half dollar without buying any special products".




After a quick internet search he found a video using the aluminum foil, hot water, baking soda method. "This seems pretty easy" thought he, "I'll just skip the part where they scrub the coin afterwards with a brush".


Long story short, he learned some valuable lessons that day:

1. YouTube videos are not always a good source of information.
2. They told you "Don't clean your coins" for a reason.
3. Using this method is not a good idea.
4. Don't use metal tweezers to hold coins. (see the scratch on the shield on the reverse).

 

I don’t have anything to show at this moment, but here’s what I think:

The IHC appears to have been successful, meaning, you are “encouraged” to do something to improve the appearance and you did, even if it goes against your pledge to avoid cleaning. I’d even say you cleaned it properly.

And on the Peace example the same urge is there. At 1922 it’s not scarce, but you can’t not try something to alleviate the discoloration.

You know, in my book, eye appeal coupled with condition are the first criterion used to assess a coin when you first see it, and I think a lot of members would say that is a true statement. So if you don’t cause further issues, and end up restoring or preserving the coin, I’d say you’re doing your due diligence and still living up to your ideals…imo…Spark

 

I see cleaning as a positive thing if done correctly. Anything that is on a coin that would cause degradation or further degradation should be removed.
As far as trying to restore or alter the look of the coin to “improve” the visual look of the coin should depend on the type of damage or patina and the historical and monetary value of each coin. I would also say that the skill level of the person attempting to restore the coin should be adequate.
That being said I can understand why you would not want to attempt to restore most coins. Most damage or patina cannot be removed without altering the surface of the coin, it’s part of the coin and its history and should be left alone.
I would say success on the one cent piece!

 

Case in point: Never attempt cleaning of coins like this Metal Detected specimen.
Just my 2 cents.....

 

Before.


After.

 

IMO, this will help all of us:

Sometimes when you do everything right for hundreds of times every so often it will fail. Nevertheless, when you post a fail, please keep letting us know what you did.

 

I have several posts on getting rid of copper oxidized red spots on gold coins, take a look if interested.
Here is a 1980 Panama 100 Balboas unc that I won at auction and was in an ANACS MS66 soapbox holder. The surface looked like some scum and superficial marks:


I cracked it out and then tried acetone which did next to nothing. I then went with my favorite go-to - this was to rinse, tamp dry with high nap white cotton towel, wash between my fingers (!) with water and dish detergent, then rinse well, tamp dry, put coin in dye free ammonia for about 5 minutes (I will occ. use for shorter or longer periods), then soak Q-tip in same ammonia and then tamp the surface WITHOUT scrubbing or brushing surface to thus avoid hairlines, then rinse again and tamp dry with same towel (but not same part of towel). I sent it in to PCGS and got this:


Which graded 69PL.

 

The good news is, you got a bunch of valuable lessons in only one try! Many of us require multiple tries to learn only one lesson. Congrats!

 

I think you did well! Really, you couldn't just leave it as it was; nicely done!

 

Outstanding job! I have hesitated to use ammonia, but this did a good job!

 

The 2 peace dollars were won in an auction; I didn't pay much because of the obvious dark toning. I used e-z-est for a quick two seconds and then distilled water rinse. I tried it twice on each coin. I think this was a fail because the coins still have spots and now I can see all of the scratches that the toning was hiding.

 

As Insider mentioned, please tell us if you think your coin was a success or fail and why. Regards.

 

I think this peace dollar was terminal to begin with and what you did looks better.

 

Definite success.

 

I think this coin looks better. You basically hid the spots making the coins look toned.

 

I like this one. This is silver?

 

Is this before or after?