Sometime back about the middle of February I posted some photos of coins I had purchased that were exceptionally polished with something. Unfortunately those photos were from after a few days in laquer thinner, a few days in Acetone, A few days in warm distilled water and then left on a window sill. The window sill is in a kitchen. Not long ago I also purchased a Nickel that too had been polished. This too went through the same attempt to restore the coins to somewhat of a normal look. Now after many more weeks on the kitchen widow sill, inside, window closed, the coins are starting to tone down to a not polished appearance. The Walker Half was the first one experimented on. The Mercury Dime was about the same time. The Nickel is very recent. Note how the Half is almost a normal looking coin with actually a little toning starting on the edges. Not so much with the Merc Dime and almost no change in the Nickel. Of course these results are inconclusive due to no knowledge as to the polishing method of substances used to polish those coins. It does appear that what was possibly used on the half is completely gone and will soon appear as an almost normal coin. Usually if you point out to a dealer a coin has been harshley polished, you can get it much cheaper. Unfortunately any cost savings are lost in the Laquer thinner, Acetone, distilled water and my time. Any comments????????????
Since I don't know what the "before" looked like, I have no opinion on your improvements. They pretty much look like "normal" coins except for the nickel. Not sure what I'd call it.
Thanks for posting your results! I'd like to see straight-on shots of the coins. Taking the photo at an angle doesn't lend itself to judging what the surface looks like. Thanks again for sharing.
I know I really should have taken photos of how they appeared when polished. They all looked as if they were proofs at that time. I didn't take any photos of them due to not thinking they ever would appear as they do now. I feel there is no hope for the Nickel at all. There were some photos of the Half and the Dime in this forum about the middle of February under the same title of polished coins. Even then they had already lost some of the polishing. These are great experiments for the possible purchase of polished or excessively cleaned coins though. Just a few more months on the window sill.
Not sure how to LINK back to a past post but back in 02-12-2009 a post by spock1k called How to cure polished coins on page 5 I posted some photos of the Half and the Merc Dime. I just went there and looked and they really haven't changed much to my surprize. More moisture I suspect.
