Fixing Restored Date Buffaloes

Nod2003 - There has been a LOT of discussion about restoring dates on SLQ's, but to my knowledge no one has ever come up with something that is quick, easy, safe and...efficacious. Part of the problem, I think, is that SLQs are 90/10 silver to copper. If you can find a chemical that works only on the silver you'll effectively dissolve the coin. If you find a chemical that works on the copper it probably won't make a perceptible difference. Nickels are 75/25 copper to nickel which is a better ratio to work with when you're only trying to affect one of the metals. There's a guy on this forum who goes by a name something like "Biochemist6" who might offer some insight into your question. I think he once spelled out the proper ratio of chemicals to use. (And if I am mis-rembering this I TOTALLY apologize - in advance)

I have been told there used to be a product on the market in the 1960's specifically for this purpose, but I have not been able to verify if that is rumor or fact.

I have a bunch of dateless SLQ's and I might try out a little nitric acid on one of them one of these days. I did this a couple of years ago and I ended up with a 14 cent piece! Totally dissolved away the lower third of the coin! Next time I'll use a weaker concentration and not leave the coin suspended in it ALL NIGHT!

One final thought: I would suspect that even if someone comes up with the ideal chemical or chemical combination for this that the results would NEVER be as good as those that can be obtained on a nickel. I would go so far as to venture a guess that if the date can be revealed it would be so weak that the average camera would not be able to capture it adequately.

Does that also apply to a dateless type 1 buffalo, since even though it has no date you know what the date is. I found three yesterday in my bag of dateless coins.

Nickelman: Hmmm. Now you're splitting hairs. I suppose there are people who might pay a bit of a premium to own some dateless type 1s. However, if you are ONLY considering potential value, I know darn well that you could sell a nicely restored specimen (clear date, horn evident) for more than you can sell a dateless specimen.

Chances are that what you found in your bag of dateless coins are P mints, right? Neither option is really worth exploring with a P mint. I think the best I ever sold a nicely restored 1913-P T1 for was $5.00, which was simply NOT WORTH IT for me, as I have to get closer to $7.00 to break even. Good luck getting even a $1.00 for an untreated 13-P T1.

I found 7 dateless 1913 t-1's in my bag of 250 dateless buffalo's worn very bad except one
5 are reg p no mint marks
2 are " d " mint marks , one is very worn how ever one has a nice back and the " d " is very clear I'm trying to restore that one as we speak.

white vinager has worked great for my 1914,15,16,17,18,18d,19d nickles
most of the 1920's 30's nickles dont seem to be restoring to well if at all

for all the early dates white vinager did the trick , I took them out and used one drop of battery acid from a car battery through a syringe placed it on the date and it drew them out even more , the 1917 battery acid it really brought that one out .
then I soaked them in vinager agian to even out any discoloration from the battery acid , washed them off cleaned/whiped them with a towel , put them in the over at 400 degrees for 20 minutes , The oven at 20mins help give them a natural tone to get rid of that disgusting grey/pewter look with out over doing it.

So far from 250 , 15 have clear readable dates they are the teen 14-19 dates and a few with D marks ( 1918d 1919d ) 1916 seems to restore eazy have 4 of them

15 more have or will prob have readable dates with some battery acid help and resoaking , they are all D S mints from the 20's-30's nickles ( partialy visable dates ) being they have D S ill spend more time on them

40-50 ones with partial dates from the 20's 30's with no S or D marks only book for around a dollar each in G condition not my main focus now ,being restored thats what 25cents each if they book at 25% value ? , ill focus on them after I'm done with the S D marked ones just soaking in some vinager for a extra long time

about 150 seem hopless with so much wear I doubt anything will come of them

Thanks Kurt, but unless you added the yellowish toning to the "after" pics, you're still killing me! Are you working for one of my competitors? Are you trying to put me out of business? LOL!

Just messing with ya, Kurt. But if you really want to take representative photos you should probably put them into a 2x2. Works for me, anyway!

Dats a good one!

Seriously...these are how the restored nickels actually look when photographed correctly. Kurt: This is how 3 out of 4 of yours looked when you received them back from me, no?

(This one goes to ebay tomorrow night)