Contaminated Dellars Darkner and my whacked S VDB!

Thanks for the "no cleaning crew" not shooting me! I think Olive oil is the best I can do now. I do realize the more you try to fix a coin the worse it can get.- this is proof. I hope the grey look isn't stuck on the coin though I am sure it is.

 

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Unhappily you can't unring a bell. Way to man up and admit you goofed. Takes guts to do that.

 

Boss, thanks for sharing your experiences with this unfortunate coin. I have definitely learned some things about what to do/not to do with copper from this, and appreciate your posting about this, knowing full well you might receive some critical/derisive comments. I'm glad you stuck with your gut instinct and told this story and asked for advice.

 

Thanks Thad, the Dellars caused two vedigris spots as well as the darker gray color. You can see some remants of it-lighter to the right of the last 9 on the "1909" and below and to the left of the ear which I can't see at all. It completely removed this but not the gray toning. I am going with the olive oil advice (it's in there now and already looks better than the pics). The odd thing is the MEK and xylene clearly made the gray spread- I am certain of this and can't explain it. Little apprehensive about the window sill. I'd rather put in album, and enjoy looking at it- this whole process caused me to buy an album and put in my not perfect coins in hopes they tone and cover some of the damage in time and I can visually enjoy them at the same time.

 

Thanks Ksparrow. I knew I'd open myself up to the firing ring despite my disclaimer, though you all have been pretty nice and I am sure have some embarrassing stories yourselves. Maybe, I should have called this "Confessions of a fool- share your stories". We could have had a lot of fun with that. I am a risk taker by nature, and you win some you lose some. I have mostly been rewarded with measured risk taking (educated risks). Most successful people have in common, great failure and rising from the failure via analysis of their mistakes and not repeating them.

Ubermint:
The funeral is this Saturday 10 am sharp. Please bring your dellars, Jewelluster, MS 70, ovens, sunshine, potatoes, electrocution devices, mineral oil, rose thorns, toothpicks, whizzing devices, dremels, and whatever else we can. The coin is not totally dead yet, but I am sure we can kill it with a little effort.:hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer:

 

Boss, Either keep it for a few years and try to retone it in the sun or just sell it as is. I would love to have your 09 SVDB in this grade, cleaned or not. Many would. So, sell it and acquire another that you won't have to fret over. You have a key coin that you should have no trouble selling.

Bruce

 

I have a few suggestions. For one you could try what I'm presently attempting with coins that were either waxed or polished with who knows what. Presently a Walker Half and Mercury Dime. A few more soon. I simply soaked in Acetone for a few weeks and in the Sun. Then is a jar of distilled water for a few days. No exact time taken. Now on a kitchen window sill standing up or rather leaning against the wood part of the window. I suggest a kitchen window due to the different foods that are cooked and in the winter most windows are closed. They were extreamely shinning when I first put them there and after several weeks, again forgot to time this, they are starting to tone down. I haven't tried this for a while with Copper coins but that is next as well as a few redone or replated 43 steel cents.
You presently have little to loose so try that.
Some time ago I also tried gun bluing on a Copper cent that was extensively cleaned. It did work to a degree but I'd caution using it on such a coin as that one of yours. You might want to do the same with something like a 1910 and then the gun bluing to see the results.
However, as long as your not in a hurry, try the kitchen window. If your in an area where you keep the windows open, this too may not work or even work better.

 

Ubermint:
The funeral is this Saturday 10 am sharp. Please bring your dellars, Jewelluster, MS 70, ovens, sunshine, potatoes, electrocution devices, mineral oil, rose thorns, toothpicks, whizzing devices, dremels, and whatever else we can. The coin is not totally dead yet, but I am sure we can kill it with a little effort.:hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer:[/QUOTE]

You forgot microwaves. Garrett microwaved an ancient coin. :bigeyes:

I'm sorry your result wasn't what you had hoped for, but it's still a coin that many (myself included) would be proud to call my own. Stop beating yourself up. It's okay, I bet it works out in the end. :high5:

 

One of these days, I might just have to bake some coins in a potato! The idea just has something "fun" about it. I think Olive oil with the potato would help!

If I was a catbert coin collector ,I would be on my 7th or 8th life.

Boss is ahead of me now I think !

Boss, you are my kind of guy..when the experiment doesn't work, you admit it!

Jim

p.s. just kidding about the olive oil.

 

Boss,
Trying to further fix that coin is only going to make it worse IMO. I don't think your Dellar's was contaminated. Basically Dellar's is vaseline and sulfur powder. If it's not mixed perfectly, you will have clumps of sulfur. Clumps of sulfur readily react to form black spots. In the future I would recommend not ever using dellar's, as it does not give coins a natural appearance anyway.

 

Zaneman- you hit it on the head!! I forgot to mention this and I kind of forgot about it. I inspected the dellars afterward and it was clumped up. I am pretty sure I mixed it with vasoline to calm it down but at this point, I frankly can't remember. After the dellars clumped, I wiped it up like butter and hid it from myself (is that possible?? probably only if you have multiple personalities and Joe doesn't tell Steve where he put the dellars:kewl:). This is exactly what happened. I guess it wasn't contaminated but overly concentrated. I used Dellars before on other coins without a problem, but generally didn't use much as it has the painted on look. However, I can't see how olive oil advice and remove with xylene is going to hurt at all. I orginally had the visible harilines by a LONG soak in acetone and the artifical toning was removed (probably dellars) . I am tempted to remove olive oil with acetone as this is what removed the toning the first time. To Jim I wonder how the dellars could ever be permanant if I removed it the first time with a 20-30 soak in acetone?? I think this is where I am headed as I hate this grey look and the coin used to be quite attractive in my opinion. Maybe I am crazy but I am going with my chemistry advisors on this one- Thad and Jim and Carl who was science teacher I believe he said some where when talking about acetone. After all this I am most agreeable to leave in album. The window sill makes me nervous. In fact I did that with vasoline and some coins in a paper flip and they all developed multiple carbon looking verdigris spots. I had them taped to the window on some hot days. Maybe it was too hot??

Thad: the window sill and rubbing the coin. Rubbing to put natural oil in an EF coin. People say never touch the face of a coin, however on an EF coin that has all the natural oils removed from extended soaks in xylene, MEK then that makes sense as long as you wipe lightly with a cloth or you will have big finger prints. I assume you meant to do that as well?? I still need some Verdigone by the way and your email address is not valid when I type it in. Help me out brother man.:secret::hug:

Missy: thanks for your kind words. It still is a decent coin, and I do have some hope for it. I guess the funeral will be canceled.

Jim: thanks for your scientific kudos. I do believe in intellectual honesty at all costs. I can fool myself if I want. Many live their whole lives in self-deception, but everyone who is astute can see it like a sign on their head. I figure face up to your screw ups, weaknesses, and learn from them. Wild thoughts I know, now a days- someone should have told Maddock, the Enron guys, the peanut butter dude, Fannie Mae CEO's, and on and on.:goof::computer::computer:
Sorry I can't respond to everyone. It is so overwhelming and my wife thinks is calling this site my other love:headbang::headbang::headbang:

 

At this point I don't see much more that can be done. If it were mine I would remove the olive oil and leave the coin on my desk.

 

Thad- I was rereading these posts on "cleaning" and had been meaning to comment on this post even though it is now "old". The rubbing coin between the fingers put what appears to be permanant finger prints on the coin's reverse. I figured it would, but took your advice a little blindly (no blame here- I accept that all decisions are mine to make and I have to judge what seems right to me). I therefore, due to frustration with this coin sent to NCS. I had some weird experiences there, but I am certain nothing I have done has helped, and this looks like the type of coin they can help. Just want to let you know FYI. I lightly wiped the coin after the rubbing. This has to be done extememly lightly as it so easily scratches the coin showing fresh copper which then has to retone and now you have a new scratch which happened here too.

 

Hummm....not sure about the finger prints. I've done the window sill technique many times and it's worked wonders. In fact, I have 4 cleaned coins I bought around 8 months ago retoning, they look better each time I check and rub them.

 

How would they not get the acids from your finger print on the coin? That's why they always say don't touch the face of the coin. We all have coins with finger prints I'm sure. Maybe the rubbing blends the print. Wouldn't it scratch the coin as well? Do you rub off the "rub" with microfiber cloth or something? I have lightly scratched coins doing this so I only dab the coins if needed.

 

pics GD i would like to see this thumbing effect. i thought putting your finger on the coins would leave finger prints or harlines or both. do they put some sort of chemical on their fingers first?

 

The coins I've been doing this on have no hairlines, they have been lightly dipped and I don't like the appearance. One of them is an EF-AU that was bright red....baahhhh...can't stand that!. It's a very nice coin that somebody decided to dip.

I'm retoning the coins for two reasons: 1) I don't like the appearance 2) as an experiment in long-term copper retoning

With any luck, the coins should retone to near their original look. Will someone spot this after I'm dead? I don't think I'll care then! LOL The bottomline is that they WILL look better than when I got them.

 

I haven't tried this myself, but I have heard that a copper cent can be returned to a somewhat natural color by wrapping it in tissue paper and burying it in a flower pot with good quality potting soil. Water the plant and care for it as usual. After perhaps two months, dig it up.

You might want to try this with an ordinary coin first since yours still has significant scarcity value.