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 Replies: 6 / Views: 2,446 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1391 Posts |
Well, it looks like the day finally came. I was doing a Scrooge MacDuck and browsing my coins and I noticed that two of my Byzantine coins and two of my Indian coins looked different. Here is the Byzantine coin. I have it stored in a saflip. I live in Idaho so very low humidity. That spot in the center doesn't look good to me. I poked it with my fingernail and some of it came off as a powder.  Here is my Indian coin, it has some white fuzzy stuff growing on it. The other one looked similar but I washed it off. But two growing is suspicious to me. It is hard to see in the picture. But it is easily disturbed when I take it out of the flip. It looks like mold or something from old yogurt.  So I checked all of my coins. Everything else seems to be the way I remember it. I have maybe 50 ancient coins. It is just these four. What should I do? It is enough to make a guy get down in the dumps.  |
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Moderator
 United States
16679 Posts |
I wouldn't panic too much. The rest of the coin looks fine.
Yeah, your pretty much West Coast like me in CA...Humidity is hardly a concern.
swcoin.ecrater.com
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4964 Posts |
i don't see any BD. any spots you suspect, rub with your fingernail. if a green, powdery stuff comes off..it's BD. it it stays put, it isn't. here's a coin I have that did have BD...  |
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
If it's there it's just starting and should be easily treated. remove the powder from the coin and put back in the flip. Keep and eye on it to see if the powdery material returns if it does than you might need a little more aggressive treatment.
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Pillar of the Community
1121 Posts |
I endorse Chrsmat71.
I am no expert when it comes to BD, and I cannot see what was on the coin before you 'flicked' it off, but . . . . .
A/ I can't see any B.D., and
B/ if it was there, then following Echizento's advice will bring it back and you can treat it then.
(See other posts on this site for treating BD.)
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
You can quite easily treat for BD (well, without chemicals that is). THe cause of this kind of decay is ions adhered to the coin that, when in contact with any humidity, cause a series of reactions that 1) Corrode the coin and 2) reproduce the ion. Effectively, the ion is catalysing the reaction.
Removing them is quite simple - firstly, remove all the powder. Dont be shy, get it all. I advocate cutting straight through to metal just to be sure, but as long as the powder is gone, it should be fine (though this often takes you to bare metal). For really bad cases the BD actually penetrates the surface and chunks of the coin have to be removed, but thats when its really bad.
After that, get some deionised water and soak the coin. Scrub the coin with it before the first soak to remove the last of the powder. Then, leave it soaking. Change the water daily for the first part of the treatment. This leeches the ions from the coins surface, slowly but surely. The green will still be produced whilst this happens - immediately remove it. In a few weeks you'll stop noticing green being produced - Id treat for another couple of weeks anyway. After this its important to keep the coin dry - take it from treatment and then bake it in the oven to dry it, then put it somewhere dry.
Renwax has its use here but is generally frowned upon (Id use it).
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
3626 Posts |
Once your coin is being treated, throw away the flip, don't use it for any other coin.
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Replies: 6 / Views: 2,446 |
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Posted 02/20/2015 9:09 pm
