Removing PVC damage from some coins

I need to fill a few holes in my contemporary Japanese coin collection (1948 to 1980-dated coins). Not being able to find the years I'm looking for, I thought of breaking the coins out of some common mint sets. I did find someone selling mint sets for four of these years: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979.

The Japan Mint, for whatever reason, decided to encase its yearly mint sets they made in the 1970s and early 1980s in lovely, supple, old-school shower-curtain material. So, the problem was, the mint sets that I had found online had PVC damage in the form of brilliant green verdigris (if that's what it's called?) on the coins inside. The online store clearly showed the level of damage that they had, and clearly noted "PVC Damage" in the item description.

I remember reading about Verdi-Care here at CT. Combined, the four mint sets cost 12 bucks. If I ruined the coins trying to "conserve" (or is it "restore...?") them with this treatment, or if I read the directions wrong and messed it up, I figured it wouldn't be much of a loss. I'd also gain some knowledge just by trying it out.

Here's what they looked like:

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

As you can see, I found not only this dark green junk, but also what looked like both greeen, and clear, "moisture" on the inside of the PVC pages. When I cut open these sealed PVC pockets, I soon found out that it wasn't water, but a sticky substance that I can only guess was the result of PVC breakdown, maybe because of exposure to heat(?) or the reaction with the metals of the coins.

 

So, I followed the directions for the use of Verdi-Care here:

http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/files/images/Verdi-Care-FAQ.pdf

 

I followed the directions for soaking the coins in Verdi-Care. I gave it about 3 hours.

Per instructions, I used a toothpick to jab at the green stuff. It came off quite easily.

 

These 100 Yen coins looked like they were PAINTED with green gunk.

After the treatment, they looked quite good, but decades of PVC damage did leave what looks like "breaks in toning" or "abrasions" on the high points of some of the coins.

 

The worst off were the brass 5 Yen coins (with holes, above). They had the most extensive damage, and the most encrustation of the green stuff. Even though they look rough, I was surprised that they came out THIS good!

The aluminum 1 Yen coins seem not to have been damaged at all...

 

Each yearly mint set comes with a little medallion, denoting the Gregorian calendar year on one side, and the symbol for the Chinese zodiac animal for that year.

With these medallions, I soaked a micro-fiber cloth in Verdi-care and rubbed the green junk off. These were brass, and had the worst damage on them, but the result was surprisingly good considering the extent of green gunk on them. The high points on these were also pretty ruined by the PVC.

The total result was that I was satisfied with the condition of most of the coins, and it seems that if you follow the directions, it seems to work quite well. I was ready to throw them all in the trash, but now I'm able to put them in that album. Success!

 

Heres the only yen I own, its a 10 yen from 1953

 

good job! your coins turned out looking great!

 

you better wait 30 days to let the chemical wear off

 

that's a great improvement. nice to see a product that really works. it's on my list just in case.

 

Exactly. I failed to mention that I gave the coins both a distilled water rinse, and an acetone rinse prior to applying the Verdi Care. It says that in the directions that I read, so that's what I did. I actually didn't know that PVC residue should be removed with acetone, but now I do!

Thanks.

 

Right. The directions pretty much said so, too. They just tell you to keep them out for "24 hours or longer". I'll keep them out for a while

 

you don't want your labor to be for nothing

 

Bad Thad can correct me, but one of the possibilities of PVC contamination is that the copper can react with the chloride in the PVC to give copper chlorides which can be one face of verdigris. Glad the VerdiCare worked so well for you. I notice the bottle says VerdiChem. What is different?

 

i have the same bottle an on the back it says "verdi-care with react2", verdi-chem might be company name?

 

Dunno.

Perhaps an executive company decision to change the name to give it more "cache`"?

I think "Verdi Care" might be a better name for people. "Verdi Chem" might scare people. Cause we don't believe in "better living through chemistry" anymore, I guess.

Remember how "ChemLawn" changed their name to "TrueGreen"? That company didn't want people to think that the Salvadoran immigrants who come to treat your lawn are spraying unhealthy, environmentally-unfriendly "chemicals" (which is exactly what they do), so they changed the name of the company. Now with the name change, they're all "earth-friendly", don't you know!

 

I'm pretty sure Verdi Chem is a newer product Thad made that improved on Verdicare . With Verdichem you can leave a couple micron layer to protect the coin , or rinse it off in distilled water if you don't want to leave a residue . BadThad can correct me if I'm wrong .