Does PCGS Restoration Service Remove Lacquer?

No reason why they wouldn't, because you can remove lacquer completely and undetectably yourself with acetone. If I knew it was lacquer I wouldn't waste the money paying someone to do that for me. Your comfort zone is your own, of course, but you could do it yourself cheap and easily if you wished.

Good point, Sap. Lacquer is probably what has kept it Red in the first place.

Not an issue for most collectors here but I did see an example on one TPGS (not PCGS) website showing how they had removed an annoying spot of red wax from a coin.



Unfortunately red wax used to be used to make casts of a coin back when photographing items for auction catalogues and books was an expensive business. The use of wax made it possible to compensate for shiny surfaces.

The existence of red (and occasionally yellow) sealing-type wax on a coin could be an indication it had been illustrated in an old catalogue, journal or book (generally sometime between 1900-1960 after which the practice died out as it became cheaper to print decent quality photographs)

Removing it removes a hint that your coin could be from an old collection (and by comparing how the wax appears on a coin it's sometimes possible to identify it conclusively in an early publication confirming its history) And since only better or rarer coins were subjected to this process it would (to me at least) be a good thing to retain!

Which I guess is my way of saying, sometimes it's better to leave a coin as it is ...

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I think I will send it to them and see what they say.

I have worked with acetone on red copper and it is very tricky. It is very easy to cause the red to discolour or become splotchy. I don't think my acetone skills are good enough to take on this one. This particular coin is registry set material and I want to ensure that it passes muster from their grading perspective.

Thanks for the thoughts!