At a garage sale, I found two half dollars (1942 and 1945) that were made into jewelry by dipping in gold and placing bezels around the coins. Neither of the coins is valuable, but I have question. If I can remove the bezels without damaging the coins, is there a way to remove the gold gilding? Maybe it's not even worth the effort. Thoughts? Thank you.
You can remove the bezels only if there is a very tiny screw at the top, near the loop. If not, (along with the plate) why bother? Either way they are just worth melt.
I wouldn't tamper with them. I'd use them as jewelry actually... Wouldn't have any need for a gold plated walker, you could always try to sell, but they might go for under melt! I'd just keep them they way they are, and enjoy them
I have started a tin of stuff not worth collecting that will go to the melting pot, you could do something similar, sounds like you would get a tiny bit of gold and silver to start it off.
It can be removed but not without some damage to the coins so it probably isn't worth while doing it. On occasion a plated coin will be worth enough even with the slight damage to be worth removing the plating but not often. One case I know of was when a collector had a Mintstate seated dollar that had been gold plated. Removing the plating left him with a dollar with MS sharpness and just a very lightly etched surface. Not perfect but much better than a gold plating.
