Coin photography: scratched slabs

I have about 25-30 coins that I would like to photograph, but the slabs are severely scratched. For instance, the scratches on the slab below obscure the view of the coin. Mark Goodman suggests using a plastic cleaner to remove the more significant scratches but falls short of specifying a brand or type. I seem to recall a thread here or on another forum covering this very topic, but I was unable to find it. Can anyone recommend a good product that gets the job done?

1799 Great Britain proof pattern 1/2 Penny NGC PF-64BN

 

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I have a solution.
It's a german product for sure, but maybe you want to order it via the internet.
I took it several times and the result is just wow.

 

This is my secret weapon. Available at any parts store and does a magnificent job.

 

Plastic cleaner and plastic polish are two different things. I use Meguiar's PlastX (a polish) to buff out scratches on slabs. NGC slabs tend to need more elbow grease than PCGS, and some older generations of NGC slabs have plastic than never looks good. After buffing out what I can, I use a tiny amount of unscented lamp oil (Ultra-pure brand), which I keep in a dropper bottle, and smear it over the slab, careful to watch for bubbles or lint. The amount is typically less than a drop. This fills in the remaining scratches quite nicely. It then wipes off easily when you're done with pictures. Any colorless, light oil will do. As a bonus, the oil is good for dissolving adhesives left on the slab, too.

 

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions! I’ll try one of these and post the results when I can.

 

I use the Novus set of plastic polishes/cleaner.
There are three in the set: heavy scratch remover, fine scratch remover and clean & shine.
Most of the time the fine scratch remover will do the job.
On rare occasions a scratch is so deep that even the Novus heavy scratch remover won't handle it.

 

Does anyone have some before and after pictures of scratched slabs, along with what product they used? I am very interested in getting rid of scratches on over a dozen slabs. Thank you!

 

It's not so much about the plastic polish (I use Novus), but more about how you polish the slab. The lights you use to illuminate the coin will light up the scratches if the light is not parallel to the scratch. What you want to do is polish the slab in one direction and that direction should be parallel to how you intend to light the slab, so that the scratches from polishing are not lit up. This is the same technique you can use to highlight or hide a scratch on a coin.

 

I know that @Islander80-83 used my method with the Turtle Wax lens polisher and posted some very detailed before and after photos not long ago. I don't have the tech knowledge to go find them for you. Maybe he will answer this call out and post them for you. He had some terribly scratched slabs that he restored back to perfection.

 

@Jaelus you bring up a good point, and Mark Goodman mentions this in his book. I typically place my lights at 2 and 10, so I will polish from 6 to 12. I just needed a little more guidance on the type and brand, so I did not waste money on something subpar. So far there have been 2 votes for Novus.

 

I used Meguiar's PlastX until I found another one of their products. NGC slabs are still tough to eliminate deep scratches, but this does a decent job. Works great on PCGS and Anacs slabs.

 

Headlight lens restorer works great and is available at any parts place. Just be careful when applying anything to plastic slabs. Too much liquid and it will seep in and get to the coin.

 

@kanga, I have tried Meguiar's PLASTX on slabs and it's OK but only seems to work well on very fine scratches (although it works well on my old car's headlight covers), so I just ordered the NOVUS set of three graded polishes. We'll see how those work, particularly on the heavier ones.

 

I also just ordered the 3 pack (1 is polishing, 2 is fine scratches, 3 is heavier/deeper scratches) Novus kit!

 

@Randy Abercrombie, @GoldBug999- It's in this thread:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-to-remove-scratches-from-slabs.48768/

 

@Islander80-83 thank you for posting the thread. I plan to go by Walmart on my way home and see if I can find the Turtle Wax. I will give it a shot, but I have the Novus kit in my Amazon shopping cart just in case I do not get the results I want. I will update this thread with any progress.

 

This is my public service announcement of bad products for your slabs.

I have an old blueprint file cabinet that I keep my coins in. I also live near a train track. When the trains come by, my house shakes. From opening the cabinet drawers to the train shaking the place, my coins invariably ended up at the back of the drawers. I decided to line the drawers, where I keep the slabbed coins, with a rubber tool mat. The kind you can buy at any tool store. It worked great. It kept my coins from sliding all over the place in the drawers. One day, I was looking at a coin in a PCGS holder, I noticed some white dots all over the reverse of the slab. At first, I thought, I had bought it that way. Weeks later I discovered more. Do not use this stuff I am about to post to line any cabinets. I have not tried any product to remove these spots. They are etched into the plastic. Interestingly, the NGC slabbed coins do not seem affected. NGC plastic may have only had rim contact to the mat. The PCGS slab's rim are the same height/depth as the center insert. Therefore, coming in contact with the mat.

 

Ouch!

 

Right.

Think of how many coins one layer deep you could place on a full size blueprint. That is how many have this. Not all of them are $20 coins like this.