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 Replies: 27 / Views: 3,724 |
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Rest in Peace
United States
18456 Posts |
If your Nickels are that bad you will have to change whatever solution your using a few times . Otherwise you'll just be putting that slime right back on your coins .  |
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Valued Member
 United States
126 Posts |
Here are some photos   |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19155 Posts |
Now that's some green crud! Looks like it has some mass to it. Curious how acetone will work.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4680 Posts |
Wow! Not much you can do to make those worse. Acetone won't do much. I never rinse with water, but in this case you can rinse in warm distilled water to get the larger clumps off (you can also go right to acetone or xylene but will need to change it out, so you'll use more). I've used a toothpick to coax the buildup off, without making contact with the coin. After that, I'd give it a good soak in xylene, while rolling over the affected area with a q-tip.
These will always be ED coins. Even if you can get the green off, surfaces under will still remain damaged, typically leaving red/brown spots.
Good luck!
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Valued Member
United States
171 Posts |
That HAS to be PVC damage! Nothing else looks like that. Nickels don't get bronze disease, and normal verdigris never looks that bad. If it's sticky like you say, it is PVC goo. Looks like they were wrapped in plastic, correct? Does it smell like a shower curtain? It's Polyvinyl Chloride my friend.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19155 Posts |
Would that be a clean shower curtain, or one that's seen daily use for 30 years?
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Valued Member
United States
171 Posts |
The PVC smell of a new shower curtain.
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Valued Member
United States
442 Posts |
Those are really bad. Swish them around in some warm soapy water first, to get the worst of the crud off. Distilled water and dish soap. Then acetone. As far as how many at a time. Depends on how big your jar is and how much acetone you have. Be sure to use the 100% acetone you get from a hardware store. Not the nail polish remover.
I use an old glass candle holder for my acetone. I generally just put one layer of coins on the bottom and flip a few times.
From the pics, it looks like some of those are starting to pit. If so, nothing is going to fix that. You may find other that are pitted underneath the green slime. No way to know until you try.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19951 Posts |
Quote:
Here are some photos I can see a polyethylene bag in the picture, this is not PVC, it is plain old verdigris. Nickels contain copper, over time, they will develop verdigris (just like a penny) when improperly stored. Organic solvents such as acetone, xylene, etc. will have no effect on this verdigris other than to dehydrate it - which is fine if you want to store them as is. The coins I see in the picture are in an advanced corrosion stage which I simply refer to as "heavy verdigris". Removal of such thick and advanced corrosion will reveal damage below it normally rendering a coin's value to not much more than face. The first thing to do is separate out any key dates or important coins, if there are any. Those would need to be conserved carefully using a different method than I show below. For the common dates, hold them under running hot water and rub with your fingers, a little dish soap helps too. You will certainly get some off. Of course the general advice is to "never clean coins" but IMO a carefully cleaned coin is far better than an unreadable slug. I've removed a lot of crud from coins just to be able to see what they are. You have little to lose with common date coins that are this bad. GOOD LUCK! |
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Valued Member
United States
171 Posts |
Verdigris is never sticky, nor does it look like that. Again, does it is smell like a new shower curtain? If so, it is definitely pvc. On nickels verdigris is usually nothing worse than a few tiny green spots.
Verdigris is little green spots and is usually stable. PVC green goo is hazy and can get clumpy. This is pvc.
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Valued Member
United States
171 Posts |
Look at the nickels in the corner of picture #1. You can see the light green pvc haze. It gets darker over time and becomes clumpy. No verdigris I've ever seen looks anything like this.
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Valued Member
United States
171 Posts |
That plastic bag could be old if the coins were stored in there for a long time. They used to make them out of pvc with plasticizers.
Edited by Morgan Nerd
10/30/2020 01:38 am
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Replies: 27 / Views: 3,724 |
First Page
Posted 10/27/2020 4:09 pm
