How to Get a Date Off a Dateless Standing Liberty Quarter

When I was a teenager Nic-A-Lene made a product called Nic-A-Silver. It had limited effectiveness, but would bring out the "D" on an 1921 dime or bring up the date on a 3 cent silver piece. Did not leave the"etched" effect as Nic-A-Date does on nickles. Rinse off the coin and the date remained. Would definitely stain your finger purple if you touched the liquid and the stain just had to wear off. Never got it to work on a dateless SLQ. No one else seems to remember this product. There has got to be a 90 year old guy still working for the company who knows what I am talking about.

 

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I've seen other posts about a silver date restorer that was available a long time ago (1960s?), but I haven't been able to track it down. I think someone said it was cyanide-based, but I'd think nitric acid would be equally effective. "Purple stain" sounds a bit like the black stain of silver nitrate, or the yellow stain of nitric acid -- I've gotten both in the past, but I haven't experimented on myself to try to get the purple color.

In recent discussions, the consensus has been that silver simply doesn't restore the way copper-nickel does. I suppose I could try some of my silver-test acid on one of my poorer dateless SLQs, but I wouldn't expect useful results.

 

Hmm. I see ammonia plus hydrogen peroxide listed as a silver etchant. That might be worth a try, although you'd have to make it up fresh each time. Wish I could find a source of concentrated ammonia solution (30% instead of the usual 10%).

 

Okay, I've found another reference that mentions etching silver, and even gold, with an iodine/potassium iodide solution. That caught me by surprise. It would certainly stain fingers purple. Looks like it's time to go digging for the old chemistry set...

 

This link is to a product for $9 and change. It's listed as 30%.

http://www.elementalscientific.net/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=1422

 

Ooh, I'll have to spend some time at that site.

I started looking around, and found that concentrated (28%) ammonia is easily available now through eBay. Shipping is the real killer, but I found a quart for $27 shipped or a gallon for $50 shipped. If I can't find anything more reasonable, I might spring for the big bottle -- there are a lot of cool things you can do with it.

Edit: yeah, Elemental Scientific falls into the same trap as anyone else:

 

I did not read that. There is one thing that really kills a deal with me; that's putting in disclaimers that add a bunch of variables that "may" drastically increase my cost but won't disclose exactly how much until after I've decided to pay. Who does that?! I understand the reason for the charges, but just disagree with the "disclosure".

 

How about the lab store at a university?

 

Early to mid-60's was when I bought my one bottle of Nic-A-Silver. Glad to know someone else remembers it. I had begun to think the fumes got to my memory but I have no other side effects side effects side effects.

 

Wrong. That person is wrong hunny. I have the exact same standing liberty coin and here is the explanation of how you can tell it's 1917-1924 and not later. Here's the link. Stay informed and don't listen to people that aren't knowledgeable on the topic! And it IS VERY valuable Even in poor condition. Going for $360 in worse condition than yours. But you'll see that if you explore the site I sent you to. Good luck and have fun!! History is incredible!
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/category/standing-liberty-quarter-1916-1930/111

 

Wrong. That person is wrong hunny. I have the exact same standing liberty coin and here is the explanation of how you can tell it's 1917-1924 and not later. Here's the link. Stay informed and don't listen to people that aren't knowledgeable on the topic! And it IS VERY valuable Even in poor condition. Going for $360 in worse condition than yours. But you'll see that if you explore the site I sent you to. Good luck and have fun!! History is incredible!
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/category/standing-liberty-quarter-1916-1930/111

 

PCGS will slab a no date type 1 SLQ and in their pop reports the overdate has been certified as a poor 1 condition.
1925 to 30 have been certified to poor 1 condition, but those all have a partial date.
Most no date coins are 1917 to 1924 T-2 as the date is gone at the fair 2 or AG-3
A certified no date 1916 quarter is valued at $2000 in Poor-1 shape, and the 1918/7-S is $750.00
Hope this helps.

 

It's easy to identify a dateless 1916 SLQ -- the design differs from 1917 and later in several ways that are fairly easy to spot even on very heavily worn coins.

I understand that there are die markers for the 1918/7-S that are visible even on dateless examples. (I can't spot them reliably myself.) Any attempt to "restore" the date on one of those would decrease its value.

I'm not aware of similar markers for the 1921 or 1923-S.

 

I slabbed a dateless SLQ that I bought in a consignment store lot of SLQs - some dateless - and Barber quarters once a few years back (price per quarter was less than $7). It was the very first time I ever submitted to a TPG - it was ICG on the CoinTalk special and I spent about 6 months gathering up 20 coins I wanted to send in. Since then I've submitted again to ICG a few times, ANACS and NGC - in fact my SLQ set on NGC is ranked #2. I've had good experiences and fair grades from all - with my share of both disappointments and wins. Oh, and that dateless SLQ? 1916 Fair 2, Details Damaged (it's my profile pic!). I think it was worth the cost of grading and authentication.

 

I read a proven method for being able to read the worn date on old silver coins, under the light of a full solar eclipse. Oh my, you may be in luck with one coming up, and not again for many, many, many years.
It has to do with high quality tissue paper soaked in real lemon juice, then laid on the area of the date, letting the last light travel across the area from North to South at the exact angle of 12º at the height of the eclipse. Leave it in place until the date shows through.
Please let us know if it works for you.

Wish I could be more specific and if I run across the article, I'll post it here.

Editors note: the poster is under heavy medication and working in a limited capacity, so please don't blame him if it doesn't work.

 

So noted

 

You have revived a 10 year old thread. The original poster is still active kind of but hasn't posted since last summer.

 

Always good to see an informative thread revived. And for those that have not read it it's just at good as new.

 

Since Nic-A-Lene made "Nic-A-Silver" there had to have been a chemical formula mixed to make that product. Was a permit needed to make that chemical product and to sell it to the public.

 

Are you sure