SLQ Date Restoration Attempts Begin Tonight

3...? I'll be surprised if it's a 3. Most likely a "0", as in 1920.

Woo-hoo! Well, sort of...

I just had the tiniest bit of success tonight working with the nitric acid. (10% concentration)

The quarter I worked with was the second one pictured way back on my original post on page 1 of this thread. It's also the one pictured on the first page in my THIRD comment on that page. AND...it is also the same quarter that the acetic acid had absolutely no effect upon.

I brushed the nitric over the date area and as soon as it started to bubble (YES...it was bubbling) I washed it off. Here is what it looked like immediately after that:



I applied the nitric again and let it bubble for about 10 seconds and then rinsed it off and examined it closely. I still saw nothing. Here is what it looked like at this point:



I repeated the process again and after I rinsed it this time I clearly saw a 3! It was as weak as it could be, but in my hand with my magnifier there was no doubt in my mind I was seeing the entire numeral. I doubt that you'll see it, but here's the photo at that point:



So now, I got greedy and I left the next application of nitric on a little longer, like maybe 25 seconds before I washed it off. My 3 became practically indecipherable! Rats! But the 1 and part of the 9 had begun to take shape. Here's the final photo for tonight:



I'm thinking that I need to dilute my acid to the point where it either doesn't bubble at all or bubbles so little that I will be able to look through the liquid and watch, watch, watch to see if any numerals begin to show themselves, much like I'm able to do when I treat just the date area of a Buffalo nickel.

One final comment: Remember that quarter I darkened with the Nic-a-date? (there are photos in this thread) When I applied some nitric on the darkened date area of THAT quarter it did NOTHING. It didn't bubble, it didn't alter the degree of the dark satin...nothing! And I left it on a good 10 minutes before I washed it off.

I wonder what's up with that?

Wow, how did I miss this thread? This is near and dear to me, as I've been trying different methods for about a year. I was involved in some of the earlier CCF threads referred too at the beginning of this thread by weerdsteev. I tried single chemicals and some chemical combinations. I'll pm you weerdsteev and tell you some things I've tried that failed miserably, so you don't waste too much effort.

Thanks David! I pm'd you back. Nod - Yep, it's still there, just not as nicely as it was before I got greedy and left the nitric on too long.

I think the 3 is the strongest digit on any 1923, Philadelphia or San Francisco, so it stands to reason that it might be the only digit one could reasonably expect to restore on a quarter from THAT year.

I think I read somewhere that a lot of the 1921s were real strong strikes so I'm hoping I can uncover that second 1 on one of the many NON mint marked SLQs that I have on hand.

Yeah, that last pic certainly looked like a 1923 starting to show up. I must admit to being very skeptical that the density differences would be sufficient for this to work. Very interesting... looking forward to seeing continued progress.

Weerdsteev,

I appreciate you taking this project on, and sharing the results with us. I have long wondered if it was possible to restore the SLQ dates like the Buffalo's.

Hang in there and dont lose and fingers along the way !

Weerdsteev,

Another poster mentioned earlier in this thread about a product that does what your attempting to do that was on the market in the 1960's.

Have you tried to find it ? It might be easier that attempting to reinvent the wheel !