Sick note - how to clean or at least preserve from more damage?

I bought a box of notes like this once, and took them to a friend who was a long time "raghead". He told me, short of conservation, (professional), all he would recommend is thorough drying and storage with a drying agent. He said he had tried with different ideas over the years, but all of them had drawbacks as bad or worst than doing nothing but that. Most chemicals used would affect the design, as most inks are not as strong as the chemicals used. He said bleach could be used on some notes, (like US), but with foreign notes many times they either destroy the paper over time or run the ink.

They were only a box of notgeld, so I just took his advice. I never liked the mildewy smell though so sold them off a few years later.

Don't know if that helps, but that was my experience with mildewed notes. Based on this, I would just dry it out.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

thank you tax
i would say for your note do as much checking on how it was made and what it is made up of and the ink after all
all notes had to stand up to getting wet
and i only used an eye droper full of bleach and my pan was a 6x12 cake dish
and yes i do plan on looking at it under every light i can black light i have right now and shows thin spots all over but the bill is old and may have been there to start with working on an inferred light now

again thanks tax just trying to help thats all i know what it is like to bid a good set of notes you start with what you can and go up from there as most of mine now are all UNC

 

OK, here are the results (taken under same light and environment conditions):





The mold was removed completely, a bit of dirt that got deep into the paper remained in one spot on the edge. I was very pleased to notice that the yellow stains (very typical for aging paper money) were removed completely.

My solution is slightly different from what was used by floirdatinman on $10. It took me less than 5 minutes. Leaving the note for 30 minutes would definitely cause altered color and unnatural bleached white color edges areas.

I am not sure about sharing my recipe and method, as it might be considered a way to "doctor" banknotes to make them more presentable and attractive for sales. If there are any questions, i can always answer in PM.

The banknote looks WAY better now and i am extremely happy about removed yellow stains you can see almost on any old banknote. Personally i`d rather keep banknotes the way they are and will try this again only if i get more banknotes with mold. Credit goes to floirdatinman for proving the process wont kill the colors/paper and the cleaning is possible and quite simple.