Acid Restored Dates

I think the acid, more than bring up a date, disolves the metal around the date and IMO an acid date coin is worth more than a date less coin.

There are numerous Acids that would do that. However, they are rather dangerous to use in concentrated forms. If you can aquire some Nitric or HydroChloric Acids a small amount should work. Weaker Acids will do very little. Sulfuric is a basically Organic reactive Acid so also, will do little. In most instances the coin is basically ruined but as already pointed out, an acid restored date is better than no date. But going from .05 to .06 is not worth the expense of the Acid.

Biggest reason for the use of the acid date nickels is it is much less expensive to obtain more valuable coins. I for one, will never have a full set of buffaloes, walking liberties, mercury head dims, etc. Just too much expense and not the biggest priority compared to other things going on.

That being said, I have seen 2 complete acid date sets of buffaloes that even included the great three legged and other key dates. obviously not as nice as the real thing, but surprising enough, seeing a complete set, with all the same was actually not all that bad!

Nitric acid or a mixture containing it (such as dilute aqua regia) would probably work best on a cupronickel coin.

DO NOT try this unless you know what you are doing. Aqua Regia is a properly mixed combination of Nitric and Hydrochloric Acids and must be done in a certain sequence and in a certain proportion. It ends up forming Nitrosyl Chloride NOCl+Cl2+HOH. If improperly mixed you may not want to see the results. In fact you may never see any results of anything. DO NOT attempt to mix chemicals you are not aware of the results.

If you use Aqua Regia, be careful of your wedding band. Aqua Regia will dissolve both Gold and Platinum.

Gold is interesting because it won't dissolve in Nitric Acid or Hydrochloric Acid, but mix the two acids and they dissolve the gold. It's a destructive test to see if your gold jewelry is really gold.

quote:

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If you use Aqua Regia, be careful of your wedding band. Aqua Regia will dissolve both Gold and Platinum.

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I would think if one was using Aqua Regia, the least of your worries would be your jewelry- your skin and bone will be gone before the jewelry dissolves

The part of the test that distinguishes gold, is that most gold imitations will react to either Hydrochloric or Nitric Acid, whereas gold does not.

I don't want to give anyone a false sense of security, but giving large exagerations as to what can happen with skin and various chemicals does not help the cause of safety. Nitric, Aqua Regia, Hydrochloric will not dissolve your skin on contact. Ammonia and Sodium Hydroxic do start to dissolve skin on contact (it's what gives them a slippery feeling) but not as fast as some here are implying.

Please understand this though, these chemicals can cause chemical burns on contact. Most require a certain exposure time to cause serious damage, and all strong acids/bases are capable of requiring hospitalization. The most severe cases involve inhalation of the fumes as the mucuous membranes/lungs are extremely sensitive. For some, a single whiff of the chlorine gas coming off of muratic acid is enough to require hospitalization.

Exagerating the effects will cause people to not take the warnings seriously. Before anyone attempts to utilize any chemical, they should google for the chemical name and "MSDS". Read the entire Material Safety Data Sheet before buying the chemical. This will not only educate the user on what precautions to take and how to dispose of the used chemical, but educate the user on what to do if they have an accident.

For those without experience in chemical safety, the best recommendation is to only work with small quantities after reading up on the chemical. Don't try to save money by ordering the 1 gallon supply of 18N HCL. Rather play it safe and order the 8oz. bottle of NIC-A-Date.

For those wondering which acid is better, I'm guessing it's HCL as it dissolves Nickel, but not copper, which hopefully guarantees that you only ruin the surface of your nickel and don't accidentally dissolve the entire nickel.