Hey friends, I've been having some fun with chemistry lately. I decided to conserve some of my older world coins, so here are some before and after pics. If you've got any conservation projects to share, please post them! This rupee was pretty much slimed up with PVC goo and the sweat and oil of a thousand hands, so George got a bath in distilled water for a week, then a soak in acetone, plus a gentle massage with an acetone-dipped Q-tip. (I wouldn't do that to an uncirculated coin, so don't panic.) BEFORE... AFTER...
Nice result ! On this one i would probably be tempted to go a bit further in washing George's neck and the dark band between the letters of the legend.
looks good JA! i have used acetone to remove wax on a coin...but i was using my wife's nail polish remover. someone suggested that there may other thing in there that could harm the coin, so haven't used since. here is a recent modern coin i posted i did clean a bit, didn't take before pics myself but can show the sellers. i used verdi-care and a toothpick.
Here's what PVC 2x2s do to silver coins when stored for decades in cigar boxes under beds. It took gallons of acetone to soak off the residue from hundreds of silver coins. The surfaces under the sticky green gunk were eroded.
Yes, I cleaned them. I bought acetone by the gallon. That residue is tenacious! It took many long soaks and many changes of acetone to fully remove the green stuff. Somewhere on my hard drive I probably have a few after shots but they are not great quality pictures. I don't remember if I sold that trade dollar in Chicago. If not, I'll try to take a picture of it post-cleaning. It's a sad coin, darkly toned except for the shiny and featureless surfaces which were etched by the residue.
Thanks TH. I think his ear needs cleaned out as well. Looks good Chris. Did you wax that coin, or does it naturally look that shiny? Are those the coins that you inherited from your dad? The ones that started you collecting?
From my grandfather. My mom decided to sell them-- then I decided to keep them. I paid her for bunches of them and sold some on her behalf. Recently I sold more and immediately traded the new cash for ancient coins. I think my grandfather would approve of the exchange.
Here's a Vicki cent, 1882 H. You don't realize how much goo bronze can acquire until you start cleaning it... Before... After...
Here's a kiwi florin. In some ways, I like the uncleaned version better, but this coin had an acrid, unpleasant smell, and as you can see, a lot of PVC gunk and other crap came off of it. It doesn't matter to the worth of the coin - it was bought for spot and will never be worth anything else. Before... After... I may practice on this one some more. I've got some tiny modeling brushes that I can use to apply acetone to nooks and crannies, and it looks like some of the letters on the reverse have some gunk stuck in them that could be pried out with a toothpick.
it doesn't currently look that shiny. i took that pic very shortly after the verdi-care had dried, at that time it makes the coins looked waxed. that lessens over time...i should have waited a couple days to take the pic.
I have never cleaned a coin, but I got a friend who is getting a bunch of dug coins in and asked me the best way to get them out of their dug state. I was thinking distilled water at first then acetone.
