Sagendorph Token And Acetone

Okay, this token, a Richardson's Sagendorph's Battery, looked like a good candidate for cleaning, so I bought it plus a bottle of Verdi-Care.




When it arrived, it was apparent that it had also been clear coated with lacquer, varnish, or whatever. So that needed to be stripped off before trying the Verdi-Care, so it received a couple short soaks in acetone, which would've been done first anyway. A few sharpened toothpicks were used to pick out the crud in the crevices, but my vision is no longer good enough to effectively do that.




The acetone did a good job so the Verdi-Care was not used.

A similar more common token, Boyd's Battery, is catalogued and extensively described by Rulau as NY-NY 33. On ebay in the Coins category, a Boyd's sells for perhaps $50, but when listed as a quack medical device they often sell for quite a bit more. There is almost always at least one Boyd's Battery listed on ebay.

This Sagendorph Battery is less common, as is another similar Richardson's Battery. There were quite a few other makers, but the three mentioned are the more common ones.

These tokens were intended to be worn on a chain, usually close to the user's heart, and a tiny electrical field generated by the dissimilar metals was supposed to purify the blood.

That same combination of metals has a tendency to create some galvanic action and corrosion, so many of these are cleaned, often harshly cleaned and highly polished, which doesn't seem to hurt their resale value at all. No doubt some are worn as conversation pieces.

When I evaluate these online, one thing I look for is the color of the silver discs. They must be nickel, because they are most resistant to discoloration and they age nicely to a white color, like an old nickel plated faucet. When these tokens are aggressively cleaned, those parts are unfortunately often polished so they look like chrome, and of course the brass and copper lose their patina too. They seem to retone fairly well with age, and I look for that white nickel color as a clue to how long ago they might have been cleaned.

-Duncan