Recently purchased a gold soverign 1/4 oz and it has SILVER SOLDER on the back....not sift solder....hard silver solder....Help George
That is going to be a tough one. I think the siver solder has a higher melting point than gold. Are you possitive it is silver solder ?
I doubt it can be done without causing further damage to the coin. It is impossible to tell just from the term "silver solder" as it comes for jewelry use in soft, medium, hard, extra-hard, etc., each with different melting point and most require a micro-torch to properly use rather than a soldering iron as for electronic/electrical solder. If it is a soft silver solder, it might be removed by heating and using a solder sucker device or maybe even solder-wick. Again, I think it is possible it will end up being in worse shape than before. A good jeweler could tell you more and give you a price, but might be better to sell for bullion and buy one without the solder. Jim
The melting point of silver and gold is less than 100 degree apart and silver solder has additives. Now if it was 50/50 , 60/40 . or 95/5 solder you might have chance. I can't think of any reason why Silver Solder would be on a Gold coin.
you could try this but I don't recommend it...:goof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Xff1FKcKE seriously though, torching may be the only way if it melts before the gold
Can anyone comment knowledgeably about chemical removal? Gold shrugs off all sorts of things that dissolve other metals. But then of course the sovereign isn't 100% gold.
I have some knowledge. You might as well put it in a Pop Machine. LOL Well. Just my opinion. You could freeze it with Nirtogen and hope the silver pops off but that is a very long shot. Expensive too.
Solder gets into gold coins like cancer... I have tried for years to find a way to get it off. I haven't found anything. I had the best luck with nitric acid... It will dissolve the solder... but it leaves a hole where it was. I just melt them for scrap these days.
Thank you all. It is HARD SILVER SOLDER....copper wick did not work. Either a Jeweler or the bullion pile. thanks , George
A nice long soak in nitric acid is your only hope, but like Dutchman said you will probably we left with a depression where the solder was. But that might be less objectionable than a coin with a lump of solder on it. (The coin will also possible have a brighter gold color from the acid removing copper from the surface of the gold. One way to avoid that would be to dip the coin in wax first, then scratch the wax off the solder so it is the only thing exposed to the acid. You may have to run a couple of experiments first to make sure the acid doesn't affect the wax.)
