Lately I've been opening up some mint sets from 1968-76, and finding the coins even more than usually afflicted by the whitish crud that the pliofilm packaging of that era leaves behind. I'm assuming that others are familiar with this - generally it's either a haze or a sort of psychedelic pattern of dots and swirls. I've seen reports of acetone taking it off, but acetone rarely works for me even after soaking for several days. My experience has been better with distilled water, but only with long soaks that sometimes produce bad side effects. To me, a reliable way to salvage these coins would be a big deal. Yesterday I was looking at some of these and I had a bottle of Verdi-Care nearby, so I thought why not. First I tried the method of soaking one side of the coin for a few minutes, then on some others I simply patted the VC on with a microfiber cloth. In all cases the white crud disappeared completely, and has stayed gone now for 24 hours. These were cents and dimes. Since I'm a bit skeptical by nature I wonder if anyone else has tried this and if the results have held up for a longer period of time? I'd love to think that the Verdi-Care is actually dissolving the bad stuff into oblivion, but there's no rubbing involved and I wonder if it isn't just rendering it translucent somehow - not that that wouldn't be a great improvement anyway.
Wow, I would suggest PMing a member here BadThad and letting him know. He is the father of VerdiCare.
The haze you talk about is common on Proof Sets, but I've never seen it on Mint Sets. So I assume it is Proof Sets that you are talking about. Anyway, Verdi-Care was designed to remove verdigris, and to a large degree it does that pretty well. But this is the first time I've heard of anyone trying it on haze. As for long term effects, dunno, guess time will tell. There is another product however called MS70 and it is well known for its success with removing haze from Proof coins. Long term effects with that are sometimes no effects at all, and sometimes the haze comes back. I don't know it for a fact but I suspect the person using it may play a part in those differences.
Sorry, "haze" was a poor choice of words on my part. These are Mint Sets, not proofs, and the effect I'm talking is usually blotchy. When I have a couple more cups of coffee in me I'll see if I can learn how to post a photo here.
I've had good results using acetone to remove this film of off coins. I've had to soak each side of the coin for 24hrs (depending to the amount of crude on it). I had a few 40% Kennedys that were harder to remove and I treated them with Verdi-Care. That was over a year ago and they still look great. The packaging from the 68-81 sets is terrible and I've seen this issue on dozens of sets I purchased (at or below face). Some of the sets' packaging smelled of moth balls, so I don't know if that had something to do with the haze.
Here's the stuff I was talking about, before and after VC. The difference is less striking in-hand; these are heavily side-lit for emphasis.
That's the film I've seen. Cladking has given some great information on these sets in the past (not sure if on this forum or another).
Thanks Jerry - nice to know it's working for someone else. I'll guess that some nice coins from this period have been spent because they were covered with the stuff.
First, thanks for sharing your results. I love see before and after pictures! This is the first time I've seen VC used on a mint set coin that looked like this. I've only used it on 2 mint set coins, one had a very light verdigris film and the other a light red, splotchy toning. In both cases VERDI-CARE™ removed the problems...in seconds. I rinsed those coins with distilled water and then acetone after the treatment and they looked perfect again. I'm not saying this will work for you, all coins are different, but it confirmed VC actually removed the problem and didn't just "cover it up". :thumb:
Here's a 70S with white haze verdigris, happens a lot to mint set coins, it's a simple carbonate verdigris that didn't have enough air and water to develop into anything worse. I conversed this coin in under 30 seconds, I remember it vividly. A couple of drops of VC to cover the obverse, blot it off, rinse with distilled water and then acetone.....done!
I have the best luck with a mixture of about half acetone half denatured alcohol mixed with a generous amount of 91% isopropyl alcohol. If the water level is too high then there is a big risk of dark irremovable spots on the cu/ ni. If this doesn't work then sometimes pure isopropyl (91%) will. Long soaks are riskier and if it doesn't come off in three days it probably won't. It's less effective for 40% silver and cents. A lot of these coins are "common" only because they're in mint sets and as many as 100% of mint set coins are destroyed (such as the '68-P cent).
Just to note that the denaturing agent in denatured alcohol can be many different things, some of which I don't know if I would put on a coin.
Probably the only coin-safe denaturing chemicals would be methanol or IPA. I would definately check the ingredients before using. In general, I don't like alcohol as a coin solvent, it can do odd things to the patina.
