Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;CygnusCC, post: 7719476, member: 120299&quot;]So, I thought I&#039;d see what a cleaning could do for a copper coin with verdigris. I grabbed a coin from the pound of coins I got from Littleton that had issues. I tried soaking it in olive oil for 3 days with minor effect.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a pic after olive oil. I don&#039;t have a pre-shot unfortunately, but with the olive oil soak and some light work with a cotton swab, significant verdigris was removed. You&#039;ll see the remainder stuck around the relief elements.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the dark toning over &quot;GEORGE VI&quot; was where I did a no-no:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1323589[/ATTACH]</p><p>I did what we&#039;re told not to do and really scrubbed at some of the verdigris with a cotton swab after the oil, leaving the black toning behind. I sort of considered this my experiment coin anyway (honestly, I was frustrated after 4 days of oil with minor effect).</p><p><br /></p><p>I didn&#039;t want to take that approach with the rest of the rot, so I moved on to testing with a dip I ordered off of Amazon. The results were... interesting.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the coin after one 15 second dip and rinse:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1323590[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It still had some verdigris on the reverse, so I gave it one more 15 second dip:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1323591[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Verdigris is pretty much gone, just some toning left behind on those spots. Of course the coin is zorched: toning stripped and the metal pock-marked. I&#039;m not sure how much of the pock-marking was already there from wear and rot, but I&#039;m sure the dip didn&#039;t help any. However, the verdigris seems removed - my goal achieved.</p><p><br /></p><p>One of these days I&#039;ll figure how to treat verdigris without too much collateral damage to the coin. Maybe I&#039;ll stay with the olive oil for a few weeks next time or move to mineral oil. There may be a trail of burnt copper coins in my wake, though...</p><p><br /></p><p>To those gasping right now <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> my justification was that I didn&#039;t want to leave the rot in place and eventually lose the coin - plus I did want to see the results.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, just thought it would be an interesting FYI to show what a harsh cleaning did to my copper cent.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in