How To Get Rid of Red Spots on Gold, Easy and Cheap

Those are exactly the orange spots on your Albanian coin. This is a VERY mild electrolytic reaction, so no "boiling" of metal. I think the apparent marks on the Anguilla coin are my poor photography as it does not look like metal destruction at all in hand. This is quite a small coin. In fact the orange spot was at the intersection of the shield and tree, and this did nicely. I will try for some more pictures tonight of this coin.
I will do some others as well tonight, including the 22kt (.916) Isle of Man Viking coins.

Here is one other picture of the obv. of the Anguilla and a blowup of the affected area:

 

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Thankfully not my coin . Just one I saw in an auction and kept photos of out of curiosity. Mine is a lower grade, but higher eye appeal IMO. I've asked about it before (@Insider gave some excellent input) but I'm always curious to hear what others have to say.

 

This is relevant to my interests, as I have a gold Kennedy with one or two copper spots. I've talked about using it as a pocket piece so that I can have the lowest-graded gold Kennedy in existence, but I don't think I could bring myself to do it.

I'm assuming that "copper spots" in general don't get their color from copper metal, but from copper oxide. If that's the case, either electrolytic or acid treatments should remove the color. High-fineness gold (.999) shouldn't be affected by either one, although I'd be nervous about physical marks from just resting a proof coin on aluminum foil, never mind any chemical activity.

I remember stripping oxide off copper wire by heating it and then hanging it over hot methanol. You get a smell of formaldehyde and a bright copper wire. I thought about using the same technique on coins, but I'm not sure exactly how hot you have to get the metal, and I'm not comfortable heating coins that much. I also don't know that this vapor-phase approach would have any advantages over liquid soaks. It might be nice to "fix" a coin that's browned in its slab, but I'm pretty sure you'd need temperatures that would melt the plastic.

 

Please use the above method. Hell, if you were in the DC area I would do it for you. It really works VERY WELL, it will not mark from just resting on the aluminum. I won't tell you that I am a physician and was trained in biology and chemistry at Stanford University.

 

@7Jags Have you ever handled a details slab that was labeled 'spots removed'? I've seen them online, but never in hand and curious what was visible that got the details grade.

This coin is actually mine, not one I've thought to have a the spot removed on, as it's not a huge distraction, smaller and near the rim above the horse's brow.





Now here's something all nice without any red spots Stanford. So, I've got to ask...what specialty? You can probably guess mine.

 

Yes, I have seen the spot removal "tag", but not on anything of mine. Confidentially I have done alright just following basic protocol. I did have an issue on a coin I used a battery for electrolysis, and too much of a good thing is just that...
This method, no problems.


Ortho

Go Weenies! LOL
Nowadays that you have any attachment to California gives you a plus in my book!

 

physics-fan3.14, posted: "Very curious as to your thoughts on this. Is this how NCS does it? (I understand if its "classified").

NO

Any thoughts on the potential for harming coins with this method?

I've never tried it but it seems to work. I can see the coin may get hairlined if not careful drying it.

 

Stork, asked: "Have you ever handled a details slab that was labeled 'spots removed'? I've seen them online, but never in hand and curious what was visible that got the details grade."

A "spot removal" label indicates someone has scratched up a tiny area on a coin in an attempt to remove something. Taken copper spots off gold leaves no trace 99.9% of the time.

 

Here are some more pictures:

First is Singapore 1988 100 Singold, orange on dragon body and a bunch of miscellaneous on the obverse. Same treatment as the above. 0.999 fine

Before:




After:



Not perfect, but IMO a lot better.

 

Here is another relative success of a 1987 Britannia, obverse only:

There is a mark in the second curl wave in hair above ear



After:



BTW, in hand all the seeming blemishes are not bad and it is a beautiful coin even if not a "70"

 

Now here are some not so successful Isle of Man Sovereigns, allegedly same alloy as above Britannia and before and after -

One Sovereign 1975






1977 5 Sovereigns, before:





And after:



I am wondering if there is another alloy that has oxidized besides copper? I tried a second processing and no difference.
I think I will still do my other IOM, but realize that they have had the worst results. Any ideas or commentary?

 

I think the difference here is the first ones have been very light surface stains. These two coins have spots which are much deeper and more toned. It appears that they are corroded.

 

HOW REFRESHING. It is a rare person who will admit to "fails." This result would not go over at a TPGS Conservation Service. That may be the reason this method is not used to the best of my knowledge. Nevertheless, whomever was the first to discover what you have shown is a genius.

Before conservation is attempted (only at some places) the spot is examined under a microscope. Many of these spots result from a tiny piece of imbedded debris. When the color is removed the debris remains. If not, their is a depression in the surface where it was.

 

Out of curiosity ( which can be dangerous), and if it is not a professional secret @Insider, can you describe what 'tool' might be used Jim

 

No telling. It is not a secret. Metal can be moved on a coin's surface using various tools. It is all covered by the term "tooling." That includes moving metal to smooth out the surface as burnishing or a recent term "smoothing" (to make the act of altering an ancient coin easier to swallow) all the way to "chasing" or digging into it or adding details. Spot removals are done to remove unsightly spots on the surface. Most spot removals are don by ham-fisted, morons who don't know any better. It looks like they use pins or nails - anything sharp and pointed.

I'll post some images this week.

 

@7Jags I would be extremely curious to see if a TPG grades these problem free. Should you happen to submit them, please follow up here!

 

I may do that for kicks. I will say that the spots do not appear deep under magnification at all and had a much more grey/black appearance and not the red-orange of earlier. I have about 4 more IOM's with the same type of spots. None of my IOMs (and I have a number more as I like the Viking on horseback despite all the disparaging remarks about the design) have the orange spots and were gotten from diverse locations in the USA and Europe.

So the Anguilla coin is of LESS gold fineness and worked out well.
The Britannia of equal fineness gold also worked out fairly well.
Obviously the Singapore of greater fineness did well.

I'd sure like a XRF or spec. of the surfaces of the IOM coins - none around here unless I want to pay the U. of Maryland $300 per test! Free at "the Farm" but that is 3,000 miles distant. Can anyone supply the info. on that.

 

My IOMs are generally in good nick:

 

IMO, all the above coins would straight grade if sent in.
These spots are part of the coin's surface and are technically not "problems." Generally, copper spots will reduce a grade a little. For example, if a coin just makes MS-64 they may drop it to a high MS-63. Copper spots are rarely tolerated on coins over 65. If they are on these coins, it probably developed after the coin was slabbed.

The idea for NCS was planted when I removed copper spots from a $10 Indian and it was graded higher. A short time later I did another conservation. That got the ball rolling and NCS went from a Janitor's sink room to a state of the art lab.

"Spot Removals" are a different thing. They are scratch damage to the surface. They can also be seen as abrasive spots where the top layer of metal is removed. This is more commonly seen on copper coins.