Restoring Buffalos

Interesting. Have you tried rinsing them to see if the stuff comes off? I remember dropping some in for a week and never saw those kind of effects. May be something in the planchets. Or more likely the vinegar combined with a chemical in the material of the cup caused some kind of reaction. Odd to say the least.

 

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You are the master of unusual hors d'oeuvres.

 

Just saw that you added salt and that would in fact do it.
I'm far from a chemistry major but I'm pretty sure dissolved sodium chloride will work wonders on nickel.

 

Gaahh! I'm guessing the chloride ions would make it attack the coins a LOT more quickly than plain vinegar.

I might experiment with this with some unlovable Jefferson nickels. Not sure I can bring myself to do it, though...

 

salt = rust

 

You can do this much quicker. The acid in any old car battery works well.

 

The only time I put a coin in vinegar was a silver roosie I found in a roll to get this gunk off that wouldn't come off. You usually use nic-a-date to restore dates on buffs. I have some tougher and semi-key date restored buffs. Those are the only coins worth anything that are restored.

 

Wash w/warm water & dish soap 1st (important). I change-out mt vin. when it gets papermoney-color. Looks like yours evaporated & got the mineral deposists on the surface.

 

Ok enough. What the heck is that?? It looks like flies on some kind of trap in the first picture.

 

If that's a ceramic container, "maybe" the weak acid leached a metallic component out of the glaze, and at saturation point, it began to precipitate out on the Buffalo nickels due to some chemical affinity.

Disclosure - I flunked Chem Lab in 1963.

 

I just put a drop of nic-a-date on my dateless buffs, and bingo... there's the date. No muss, no fuss.

 

On Valentine's Day, I put a drop of Nic-a-Date on my dateless second cousin, and he hooked up with a chick in two days.

 

Wow, sorry to see the mess your left with that just sucks. I would like to see what they look like after you have rinsed them off.

Could someone explain how nic-a-date or any other home remedies actually work? How does it make the date re appear? Would it be concidered "dipping" or altering the coin?

 

When the nickel planchet is struck, the date (& devices) are forced into the recesses of the die under great pressure. This effectively "hardens" those areas. When "nic-a-date" or other mild acid is introduced to the surface of the coin, it etches away the "softer" portion of the coin, revealing the hardened date. It is definitely altering the coin, but on dateless buffs it makes little or no difference. It's fun to see what dates were on those "dateless" coins. BTW, glad to see you back on CT, Mark.

 

is that a 1917 s?

 

Nope... just a plain old '17, acid date restored.

 

oh, that's to bad.

 

Ahhh now I understand, thanks for the explanation Jim. I'm VERY happy to be back Thank You!

 

should have added some plain potato chips