Standing Liberty Date Restoration (For Science!l

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So....after the relative success of my Buffalo nickel restoration project, I talked to my local coin shop owner and he asked if I thought there was a way to restore the date on a Standing Liberty quarter.

Intrigued by the question, I did some digging and have found a very mixed bag of attempts and successes/failures both in this forum and others.

So I wanted to make a new thread to ask if anybody had any recommendations for products, chemicals, or methods that may bring the date out of a dateless silver. I also would appreciate some advice on how best to record my experiments for you all.

My plan currently is to test with:
1.) Nic-A-Date, couple different methods referenced on CoinTalk and Coin Community
2.) Coinfrog mentioned two parts vinegar to one part peroxide
3.) Allegedly there is an ancient product called Silver Date Back I'd love to get my hands on, seems like a nitric acid based product

Im open to suggestions if anybody has any other products they think might be useful.

Thanks for the help!

Nic-a-date will probably NOT work since it was formulated to work on coins struck in part with nickel.
That pretty much limits its use to nickel 3-cent coins and 5-cent coins from 1866 through now.

As mentioned previously, I recovered the final 4 on this 1844 Seated dollar using silver test solution. I gave it a 5 second wetting before flushing it with water. Sorry for the focus, but you can see what it looks like. A shadow date.

This coin was a shiny pocket coin before I did it, so much like your practice coin. I originally thought it was an 1843, and was surprised that it was the less common 1844.

Edited by thq
05/27/2023 4:31 pm

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I read that Nic-a-Date contains ferric chloride, which reacts with the copper in a coin. Since Buffalo nickels are 75% Cu while SLQs are only 10% Cu, it will probably not be effective. But hey, it will only cost you a few drops of Nic-a-Date.

Here is a link to acid dating junk silver coins that was successful. http://goccf.com/t/264539

@thq, didn't the 4 disappear again after a while? Perhaps I'm remembering a different thread.

If the aim is just to make the date visible on a worn 90% silver coin, 16+K Gold Test Acid will usually do that; just a drop on a q-tip and blot it on the area needed to be seen. Doesn't happen right away, but you don't want that, so...

I'm looking forward to seeing both the before and after pics.

Quote:
If the aim is just to make the date visible on a worn 90% silver coin, 16+K Gold Test Acid will usually do that; just a drop on a q-tip and blot it on the area needed to be seen. Doesn't happen right away, but you don't want that, so.

Interesting. Do you know where I can find that product?

The 4 got fainter but is still visible. If I polished the coin again it would disappear.

Restored dates are very fragile. Just a touch and they disappear.

My coin shop set aside 10 dateless SLQs for me. Test subjects acquired!

Hordfest, looking forward to your results! Please post before and after pics for each coin / treatment.

Quote:
My coin shop set aside 10 dateless SLQs for me. Test subjects acquired!

Excellent!

First test specimen after an Acetone bath for cleaning

This is the same coin after 30 minutes of Nic-A-Date. Quite ugly. Is there a date under there?

After using a magic eraser..nope

Next step is a full days soak in Nic-A-Date followed by a very careful gentle removal of the blackening. If that doesn't work I'll try vinegar and baking soda.

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