1877 IHC green death but nice grade!

That's too bad. It was a nice coin..once. The conservation services might be able to reduce, or maybe even eliminate the green color, but they will never be able to eliminate the etching into the surfaces due to corrosion. That's irreversable.

 

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Jim I agree somewhat but that coin has terminal cancer...rot like this as well carbon spots on nickels just cannot not be stopped. I would be afraid it would turn to a pile of green medal.
A woman came to me one time with a roll of IHC they were wrapped in a red wrapper the type the banks gave out in th 50's-60's . She had found the roll in the garage where her husband had left them.
Each coin of 50 were better dates indian head cents. Some how there must of been some small current that had caused them to break down.
Like a zinc sacrifical anode on an outboard motor, each cent had red dust on the obv. And rev. They all were wore down to the point you could see the devices on the coin but couldn't feel anything they were smooth,dust covered . Quite a few 1870's and late 60's.
I've never seen a roll of copper that was turning to dust. Each coin was half the thickness of a regular cent.
The crazy part the wrapper had no signs of anything that may of caused a chemical reaction.

 

Good to see you Tom .

 

Awesome and thank you for chiming in and blessing this post! Glad to see what you thought and will be ordering as soon as I get the alert via text!

 

I still think it’s a nice coin being it’s key date and most of them you come across are in worse shape then this bad girl.

 

Wouldn’t these be coins that contained to sit and fester with the ongoing problem? There must be a way to eliminate the green death and stop
It from spreading further. It may turn the spots black and be permanently there but less if an eye sore then a bright green spot. Also when your holding the coin and looking at it the spots are not as apparent as the pictures which sucks because it’s not as distracting with the eyes.

 

It depends if it's stable or spreading. There are lots of things that could cause a green buildup and there is no "one size fits all" solution. Verdigris is hard and depending on the storage environment can be stable in many cases. Bronze disease and PVC plasticizer residue will continue to corrode the coin. All require different remediation methods.

So, it depends on what is on your coin.

 

That makes sense, the next question is how do you determine what it is?

 

No, Verdigris is a chemical entity , not an disease like leprosy that spreads. For it to spread ( continue to corrode adjoining metal, it needs oxygen and water molecules from the environment)

Acetone will hold moisture and carry any away as the acetone evaporates, so I would put it into a small glass container of acetone and put it away from open flames. Swirl occasionally and when the acetone get lower , dump it and do it once again . Then allow to air dry completely and put into a non PVC holder. This should hold it until you can get some chemical help. Some may disagree with my procedure, but it has worked well for me.

From my earlier experiments. Jim

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/experiment-with-verdigone-tm-on-copper-cents.47318/