Okay, I'm back with this problem copper Medal! This stain is the most difficult one I've ever come across and I've handled quite a few! The top pics are after several soaks, a good wipe with TarnX and then I used Connoisseurs Silver Cleaner. As you can see it came out looking like a silver medal, not a good thing at all! One thing I learned is that Hydrogen Peroxide soaking really helped with this project and removed a lot of the ink. Yes, I think it's ink from a ribbon as a couple of you had previously mentioned. As far as the ink stain goes, the Peroxide removed a lot of the granular deposits that had formed within the stain itself. The bottom pics is how the medal looks today after I added a coin darkener product, any ideas to improve it? https://www.cointalk.com/threads/help-with-spot-on-copper-medal.367780/
Sorry things didn't work out with the stain . Oh, well , live and learn. I would just leave it alone .
IMO only. Looks to me it looks like there's a LOT of porosity involved. The surface has been altered so much that to get that area even closely resembling the rest of the medal won't be possible short of heavy abrasive polishing. As is, it will not reflect light in any reasonable way.
Yeah, unfortunately I think you're both right, it's gonna look ruined no matter what! I think I'll just use the Connoisseurs Silver Cleaner one more time and make it a pocket piece for awhile!
In my opinion, you helped the looks of the medal. A lot of the crusty black stuff came off. The rest is staining of the metal. You could come at it with an acid but I would just leave it as is. Still a cool piece of history. A new ribbon would hide some of the stain.
