How to torture a coin

Garrett needs an intervention. While the internet was down this is what my "gifted" child did this afternoon:

:loud: WARNING: WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ IS DISTURBING! COINS WERE HARMED DURING THIS EXPERIMENT. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! :hammer:

1) He dipped a no date, way worn out Walking Liberty half in e-z-est until it was such a bright shade of silver you needed sunglasses to look at it.
2) He mixed flowers of sulphur powder with distilled water and dipped it for oh...15 seconds or so when the "coin doctor" directions said 5 seconds. Why do they call it flowers of sulphur, it doesn't smell like any flower I've ever smelled.
3) He declared it a failure and redipped the coin.
4) He mixed sulphur with alcohol and dipped it again.
5) See #3
6) He decided the failure was related to "too weak of a sulphur solution" he then mixed a solution/paste of sulphur and alcohol and dipped the coin in that.
7) See #3
8) He decided fire was the answer. His Father who up until this point had merely served as the "adult supervision" decided to get in on the action and they once again dipped the coin into the sulphur/alcohol solution/paste and with the help of his Father, he took my creme brulee torch from Williams-Sonoma and set fire to the poor coin, they repeated this process twice on each side for good measure.
9) See #3
10) The coin was burned beyond recognition. His Dad suggested it needed a good scrubbing, so next they scrubbed it with my pots and pans scrubbing sponge. The coin was then 75% black & crusty and 25% very porous metal that I think might still be chemically related to silver.
11) See #3
12) Next I hear "Mom, can I use your Tiffany's Silver Polish?" What? "The one in the blue box from the jewelry store" NO!!! "Do you have any other polish?" Tube of MAAS metal polish given to child/snail and coin was subjected to yet another round of chemical warfare/torture. Coin was then a silver blob with three holes burned/eaten totally through coin. It did smell much nicer at this point as tube of MAAS was lavender scented.
13) See #3
14) Snail now has cordless dremel and coin is being subjected to torture by lithium powered device. I'm guessing the coin weighs about 1/3 less than it did when this round of torture started. The dogs are frightened and my house smells like...I'll be nice and say hardboiled eggs but the reality is my house smells like the porta-potties after the chili cook-off at the county fair.
15) See #3
16) He then asks "I wonder what NCS would do if we sent this in for conservation, wouldn't it be funny if we sent it to them." dd:
17) Please help. This kind of senseless coin torture has to stop. :rolling:

 

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I think Garrett forgot that even coin doctors need to earn their degree before they can start a practice. Could have been worse, he could have said, "Mom, where do we keep the fire extinguisher?"

Thanks for the funny story.

 

No one ever became a serial killer after torturing coins and he needs a hobby. :goofer: I would worry about the rest of my coins and getting that smell out of the house. Looks like a scientist in the making. Ice

 

Went off his meds did he ! :goofer:

Flowers of sulfur should be Flour of sulfur ( fine grind).

I do hope you took photos

I was one of those children before they used the word "gifted"

Jim

 

I think what he did is absolutely awesome! Nothing is better tehn hands on experience learning what each type of "cleaning" does to a coin. I'm thankful he didn't use a new coin everytime though!

 

Great story ROFLMAO but one question.

What was his original intent?

 

How old is this guy? 12?

 

Nothing wrong with somebody experimenting on a coin I did it a couple of times and falied.How old is this person? If he;s 40 then he has a problem:desk: but if he;s a kid :crying:then he;s having fun with the hobby.
JC

 

I dont really know... I guess we kinda have a cleaned coin that we want to retone and I was trying methods on this blob. ( Or now it is a blob )

 

Try some chop marks. That adds some visual diversity!

 

i agree it was a dateless coin, though i am a pyromaniac as most men are, *my dads set this small hill side on fire twice

 

Win this coin! lol
http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t49004/

 

13

 

I'm thinking MS-64...

I used to do stuff like that all the time, but that was a long time ago... like a few months ago. Never to that extent though. It's a good learning experience but please keep it to dateless coin for the sake of the rest of the hobby.

 

To alleviate boredom at that moment, but the plan was in the works for a few days because he had to have the sulphur ordered. :rolling: I was shocked that after he told our pharmacist he wanted it to mix it up and use it on coins that he went through the trouble of special ordering it for him. dd: BTW, a 12 oz jar of sulphur is pretty darn big and $8 at Walgreens.

 

If a young person doesn't experiment he isn't learning....

You DO NOT want to know what I did with old cartridges and shot gun shells as a teenager!!!

 

He just made the coins I buy for no more than melt. When I was about his age, I bought a roll of Columbian half dollars from 1892-3 for the melt value of the silver because someone had polished them all up. Five years on a gate out at the ranch kind of retoned them back to dark.

 

Or having him melt lead on the stove and making coins from the lead like I did.

 

I've heard that coating a coin with sulpher and putting it in the microwave for 60 seconds on high, will tone it. :whistle:

Ribbit

 

Dont give me any ideas! :rolling:
I already stuck an ancient in the microwave trying to clean it! :hammer: