You may recognize this coin from my avatar. The reverse has some very small areas of blue residue. I've included a closeup of the area and of the entire coin. The seller said he had this coin for 10 years before he sold it to me and denies having ever cleaned it. I am very happy with the coin. I'm just wondering if it's something I should be worried about and if I should make any attempt to remove it.
eeep, that has the distinct look of pvc damage. I cold be wrong, and hope I am in this case, but that is exactly the way I saw it exhibiting on some of my washingtons a few years back.
Well if it is pvc you can't remove it without damaging the coin, and if you can not see it with the naked eye and you are not going to sell it, then I would leave it alone and just enjoy it. Bruce.
Based on the pics I'm inclined to agree with bqcoins. Is there anyone else you know who could look at the coin person ? Because if it is PVC, yes it does need to be removed. It will continue to damage the coin otherwise and only get worse with time.
I know only one or two coin professionals. I don't know if they do conservation work and if so, whether they are any good at it. (At the risk of opening a can of worms) Does this seem like something worth submitting to NGC for conservation?
I'd first dip it in acetone overnight and see what happens. That aught to remove the PVC without damaging the coin at all.
I agree, give it an acetone bath. That should get the PVC off the coin. If the PVC residue has damaged the coin surfaces, you will know after the acetone rinse.
I'm inclined to agree that it is PVC. You should be able to get 100% pure acetone at your local hardware store, and I would recommend giving it a good soak in that. To do so, I would put the coin in the bottom of an empty jar carefully, then carefully pour some acetone on it, close it up, and let it soak over night. Make sure the jar is not plastic, but rather glass. Acetone will dissolve plastic. If that doesn't work there are other alternatives, but I would try the acetone route first.
If you are going to use the acetone I'd suggest a different method. If you first wish to soak the coin overnight fine. But after that get a clean small dish and add clean acetone. Dip the coin repeatedly in it taking care to let go of the coin each time. Then get another clean dish, more clean acetone and repeat the proceedure. These two additional steps are necessary for as the PVC is disolved in the first bath the acetone becomes contaminated with the PVC. So additional dips in clean acetone are necessary to remove all traces of it. After the second dip in clean acetone, then dip the coin, several times, in distilled water. Then let it air dry.
It makes sense to use successive changes of clean acetone. Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try.
