Featured Thoughts on Renwax?

I do not buy expensive coins (although I admire all that I see here greatly. One can only dream!).
I do apply Renwax to most of my coins to enhance their appearance.
I have never sold a coin - so I am certainly not trying to hide anything from anyone..
just trying to bring out as much detail and eye appeal as I can. Sometimes it does wonders.. sometimes not so much. It can also be removed without much fuss.

Here are a couple of "before" and "after" shots. The first is the seller's picture and then mine after application. Not the same photography setup - so not truly "apples to apples" but I can assure you that in hand both depictions are/were very accurate.

I can also state that quite a few of the coins I have purchased already have wax applied and this fact is not mentioned when describing the coin. Does not bother me at all - but would that be an issue for the more experienced/high end collector?

How do you feel about applying Renwax to coins?




Before:


After:







Before:






After:




I have many more examples.. but these are the latest additions...

Cheers!

 

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My only concern is that wax traps moisture and can lead to BD infecting your coins. Monitor them carefully and often. Personally I use verdicare for coins. It shines up the bronze a little and doesn't cause BD, but I see nothing wrong with your method as long as you keep a close eye on them and understand the potential issue with moisture.

 

Good point. I do "bake" the coins prior to application. To reduce moisture and it melts the wax which makes application very easy. Not sure that is enough but we will see I guess.

 

What is your method for "baking"? Could that hurt the coins? Yours look nice with Renwax applied. I had never considered it before. Just curious to know a bit more about your process.

 

I don't know how he bakes them, but water boils at 212F, which is 100C for those in the civilized world. My guess is he probably puts them in an oven at around 235F (112C) to 250F(121C).

I have no doubt that heat will soften the coin metal somewhat, and cause expansion inside a coin that may already be weakened by crystalization or other environmental damage from burrial, but whether the additional internal damage (which is probably slight) bothers you or not, thats up to you. My guess is a few heating sessions may not cause noticeable damage, but I get the feeling that enough of them over successive owners will probably start to see some of them turn to dust or several pieces.

 

I’ve done like @Sallent mentioned and baked at 250 for about 2 hours. I saw the method from Wayne Sayles to treat bronze disease and the final step involved RenWax. I tried it on a few cheap coins that were suffering BD. It has been a few months and appears to have worked so far but I continue to monitor.

The baking should remove any moisture, but you should apply the RenWax while the coin is still warm. Be careful not to burn yourself.

 

I use this method... and I have burned my fingers a few times lol.

 

How do you know if ren wax was applied to a coin?

 

Just rubbing the coin between your fingers.. you can feel the waxy smooth surface.

 

Like so many things, there are many people who think if a little Ren-Wax is good, then a thick slather of it must be better. The proper application of wax or any other surface enhancement (Verdicare, nose grease, tooling, smoothing, polishing etc.) will not be obvious. We use to say, "If you can tell what was done, it was done poorly."

 

Let me ask if you did any other "cleaning" to the coins before applying the wax? The first coin appears lighter and the second one appears to have either some BD or toning that seems to have disappeared.

Relating to the temperature, perhaps you are heating too high. I know the boiling point of water is 212 degrees F or 100 degrees C, but it is not necessary to get to these temperatures. If I spill water on the floor, it is gone tomorrow although the temperature never got to 212 degrees...why...evaporation. Probably 200 degrees or less would be sufficient.

Finally, Renaissance Wax is apparently a hydrocarbon, as is Petroleum Jelly (Not for toast ) and Mineral Oil. My question/concern is the evaporation of any of these products. If a coin is treated and then stored in a flip of some kind, could the evaporation of the product distort, dissolve or discolor the flip?

 

I did nothing to the coins outside of heating and applying Renwax.

 

Renaissance wax contains benezine which is part of the composition, and as long as the temperature it is exposed to is less than the boiling point of benzine, 80 degrees C, ignition should not be a factor, but I would do any heating in the open and with electric plate rather than gas myself. MSDS attached ,Jim
https://products.riogrande.com/content/Safety-Data-Sheets/Renaissance-Wax-Polish-MSDS.pdf

 

Great information. Looks like this thread is featured... which is surprising and kinda nice.

 

Yeah, sometimes I would put on WAY to much. You can see the wax on the surface of this coin.

 

I have read you shouldn't "clean" coins because it actually decreases the value but it sounds like you can if you can't tell it was done? How do you do this?

 

Cleaning modern coins is harmful, but most or all Ancient coins require some degree of cleaning. Two different animals altogether.

 

Hi Mary, there is a thread here on cleaning ANCIENT coins:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/best-way-to-clean-bronze-coins-my-opinion.313459/#post-3033662

I am sure there are many more older threads too... search for "cleaning ancients" or something to that effect. Most of it involves leaving them in distilled water for a very long time.. and occasionally scrubbing lightly with a toothbrush.

 

Great. Thanks for the info. I don't have any "ancients" (at least, not any I think are real), so I won't need to worry about cleaning. I have a few of those Greek and Roman trinket/tourist coins you've been talking about but nothing I think is worth anything.