Here are 2 nickels I brought back from the dead yesterday, 14-D & 21-S. Its the 2nd 14-D and 1st 21-S that I have gotten. I done one that was almost totally slick and it turned out to be a 1934, so thats the latest date I have done... http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/wvabe/003-5.jpg?t=1291471971 http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/wvabe/004-3.jpg?t=1291471971
I forget which thread it was, but a guy had put his dateless Buffs in vinegar for 2 weeks. I had 5 about dateless ones sitting around so I put them in the vinegar and low and behold the dates are coming out. Can see a 17 and a 18. This is one week so far. How does thisNic a date solution you use compare to vinegar?
It works almost instantly, but isn't very attractive. Soaking in vinegar gives a much neater and even look to the coins. Now I have soaked some and then nic-a-dated them to further bring out the date w/o the poor eye appeal of nic-a-date alone...
So if I understand, the vinegar soak has nicer eye appeal, but the revealed date must not be as pronounced/visible as the nic-a-date treated coins?? Thanks!
The ones in the pic are just nic-a-date in the date area. The others were soaked in white vinegar for several weeks, changing the vinegar often (when it turns blue), then after I can read the date and only if its weak, I'll nic-a-date the date area...
I also do this but i use a eletrical board echant from radio shack. It does the same as nic-a-date but alot cheaper. A 16 oz bottle is $10, a small bottle of nic-a-date is $15. I have found alot of 13d ty2 and one 13s ty2. I buy all of the no date nicks I can find.
You stated that it's not a clean removal so what does the final result look like close up between one with nic-a-date only and vinegar and nic-a-date? Can you show us some closeup comparisons? Will be back from walmart with vinegar soon, going shopping shortly. ;-)
I did the vinigar for one week. Out of 5 coins I can see the dates on 3. I left the other 2 coins in the vinigar for one more week. The 3 coins with dates have a rough/dirty looking surface. I guess I woud now grade them as AG. Now I will see if the last two will show their date.
I'd love too, but I don't have them singled out. They're rolled up with the rest of them and not in any special rolls. Sorry...
it's not a close up, but here's a nic-a-date buff (towards the end of the thread)... http://www.cointalk.com/t143692/ here's a vinegar one... http://www.cointalk.com/t141380/
Ah, I'm feeling the old stirrings to get out the chemistry set again. If I can ever find a source of dateless Buffaloes at a reasonable price -- ten bucks a roll, the going rate on eBay, seems high to me -- I want to try a couple of things. A vinegar soak, for sure. Ferric chloride (the stuff in Nic-a-date), maybe. But also diluted hydrochloric (muriatic) acid, which should be faster than vinegar, and maybe even sulfuric acid. (I'd try nitric, but I don't have any on hand, and it's hard to get.) I also want to try restoring a couple of dateless SLQ's and a walker that I got at face. I figured nitric would be best for that; for various chemical reasons, it's not clear to me that hydrochloric or acetic (vinegar) would do anything. Has anybody else managed to restore dates on silver?
I've heard of a few trying, but w/o success. Imagine all the dateless SLQ owners out there just waiting for a product to come along. Something to ponder...
