Strip Sticker Off Of A Morgan

No joy.








I'm still leaning toward removing the decal, but I'd like to hear some arguments both for and against. I will put the surgery off for 1 week while I get second opinions from the Coin Community community. All input is welcome.

Thanks,
-John

Yeah, now that I've reviewed the original pictures from the listing and can see how the sticker's oriented, the mint mark area was wide open all along.

Before I placed a bid I looked at the seller's other items and she hadn't sold any coins. If the seller had a history of selling coins, or had an ebay handle like "CCMorganDollarExpert", I probably would have assumed they had checked for that.

I'm not going to lose sleep over it, the coin is still worth close to what I paid and it's in better shape structurally than the 1889-P I have now.

Once I make a decision on whether or not to remove the decal and maybe if Ag gets up around $40/ounce I'll sell one of them on ebay.

I've been in antiques for sometime now and I learned a trick from another older-oldtimer. He told me about Zippo lighter fluid. You can use it to dissolve old glue. I've taken stickers off of leather books without damaging the leather. I've removed old taped on yard sale price tags from cardboard boxes like games and when the lighter fluid dries it leaves no stain. Goo Gone leaves a stain. I would experiment on another silver junk coin and check for discoloration or any other problems but I think it will be a safe bet. Soak the coin in the lighter fluid then flush with hot water. Obviously, no rubbing. It may have to soak for a long time to break down the glue. I read Acetone in another post. That probably would be OK too. And like mentioned above, avoid using any flush water as bong water.

I would remove the sticker and I agree with the post above. If it was bought on ebay than it likely has no premium for the sticker unless it was a unusually good price.

Give it an hour. Have a small amount ready to rinse the coin in, and a second soak to give it another hour. Pull the coin from the original soak, run it under full-pressure tap water to help drive the bits & pieces off (no need for distilled water - it won't be under the tap water long enough to matter), swish it in the rinse to drive off the tap water, and then resoak for another hour. That is likely going to be enough to finish the job, with one more run under the tap and a second rinse to remove it. At that point, you can let it evaporate dry.

The first dip (about 75 minutes) removed most of the decal. One interresting characteristic about this decal is that it behaved like paint. When I removed the coin from the first soak small bits of the decal that were bobbing around in the mix re-adhered themselves to the coin and wouldn't rinse off. One relatively big bit of the decal is now lodged in the edge ridges - I hope that one comes off.

There's quite a contrast between the relatively flat areas and the ridge-lines bordering the features. Lots of crud bordering the details, but the flat areas look CLEAN.

I should have taken a picture after the first soak, but it's already back in the mason jar now for another 60 to 75 minutes, I'm going to leave it. I hope more of the crud comes off to make the finish on the reverse look a little more consistent.

-John

John, I'm coming late to the party, but DO NOT USE GOO GONE!!!



Ahem. Sorry, I panicked and then panicked more when I saw that nobody had pointed this out, because I use Goo-Gone all the time--it's a bleeping miracle cleaner--but absolutely a do-not-use-at-all-ever on coins.

http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.go...&id=13009002

As you can see from that MSDS information, Goo-Gone is oil-based. Not just any oil, either--citrus oil. Double the acid for your money! I don't want to even think about what it could do to old silver.

I am new and this answered one of questions I had. I am an old retired organic medicinal chemist and used acetone a LOT over years so I was wondering about effect of acetone on value of coins. For general cleaning I use a mixture of 20% Acetone, 30% Isopropyl Alcohol (90% type Rubbing Alcohol), and 50% distilled or deionized water for cleaning many non-electronic articles. This greatly reduces the flammability of the cleaning solution and also works on both organic (oily) and inorganic (dirt).

As others have mentioned acetone is HIGHLY flammable! Store it safely away from heat, spark and flame sources! I generally use it in garage with garage door open or outside. If pure or over 50% acetone I never use more than half an ounce or so and then in a metal or glass container with lid.