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 Replies: 37 / Views: 6,437 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6370 Posts |
Actually, what I think what I did was take a sheet of printer paper, folded and taped it into an open envelope, and placed the coin inside.
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
You can get pretty speedy toning (30 days) by sticking the coins between the pages of an old pulp magazine. Those things were full of sulfur. I've even tried cutting out circles of the pages so that the old paper only touches the rims, which gives the much desired "bulls eye" look.
It's very rare that I've cleaned coins myself, but I have taken a few gambles with a few coins that were horrid looking because of splotchy toning and dipped them down. Fresh metal works even better for a quick tone as compared to a coin that was cleaned months (or years, or decades) earlier.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4963 Posts |
I have a cleaned 1871 Seated dollar. Should I try, or is it too risky? Yesterday I passed by a tanker truck labeled 'molten sulfur'. I should just use some of that!  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6370 Posts |
Quote:
You can get pretty speedy toning (30 days) by sticking the coins between the pages of an old pulp magazine. Those things were full of sulfur. I've even tried cutting out circles of the pages so that the old paper only touches the rims, which gives the much desired "bulls eye" look. That actually sounds pretty ingenious. I may have to try that out.  |
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
Numisma - I wouldn't try your Seated dollar as a first experiment. Try a few lower value or silver value only coins to see how they progress. When I was experimenting I bought a few ounces of "junk" silver, acetoned the ones that didn't have icky tone or splotches and dipped the ones that were ugly (I asked the guy for some ugly ones and I'm sure he thought I was nuts). Playing with those gave me a good clue about how the speedy pulp toning worked. It worked better on those that did NOT have an acetone bath, too, by the by. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
509 Posts |
Where do you get a pulp magazine these days? Library archives or order online?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4963 Posts |
So if I just get some plain old kraft paper, it contains enough sulfur to quickly (a month or two) tone a coin?
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
Whats wrong with common old newspaper to accelerate toning?
Wrap the coin, and leave it on a windowsill for stong sunlight to get at the package.
I have never done this sort of thing, because I can't see the point.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5208 Posts |
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Whats wrong with common old newspaper to accelerate toning? These were like this when I found them and are much more pronounced in person and had to buy them when I saw them.    |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
2360 Posts |
Just for fun I'm giving it a hook; I have a harshly cleaned, (not by me), 1955 silver dollar. I gave it a wash with mild Baby Shampoo to get rid of any crud. I had an old pulp comic from 1973 that serves as a donor for paper. I cut two circles out of the comic using a flip with the plastic cut out as a guide for diameter. Then I put a few pages cut out in circles on each side of the coin and it is on the window sill. Will check back in a month.     |
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Valued Member
 United States
62 Posts |
Awesome, thanks, SilverDon!
This is all interesting, but just to remind people, I'm not really looking to tone coins that quickly necessarily...the whole magazine/newspaper thing seems borderline AT to me...I may still try it though for some of my more lower-end coins...
Like I said, I'm more thinking about the best conditions for toning, like temperature, humidity, sunlight, etc...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1602 Posts |
If you don't have enough sunlight but do have one of those full spectrum lamps, I've found (by accident) that those will do serious toning on clad coins. I left some Ikes on the blotter along with some Suzy Bs & the top Ike was noticeably darker than the next. The small dollars weren't stacked straight so where they overlapped there were shadows. A copper bullion round also was accelerated in tone. This was just over the course of a long weekend. I haven't replicated the conditions with any other metals.
Just an FYI. I might try some of the above tricks on BU small cents in the dark weeks ahead in 2016.
Just another side note re: sunlight. Last summer I took some 1964 cents straight from the roll and treated them with a couple conservation fluids and I found that Verdi-care was best at limiting toning of new coins. Hmmm...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4963 Posts |
I'll just try the Kraft paper thing (I guess paper grocery bags would do the trick?) on a BU 1964-D quarter and dime. For the dime I'll leave it in full contact and I'll try to bull's eye tone the quarter. Before pics will come tomorrow.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4963 Posts |
Okay, here are the before pics. I would have started this yesterday, but I was skiing for the first time this season- there was a ton of new powder up in the mountains. I also have two tattered Walt Disney comic books from 1940 and 56. Do you think that paper would work even better? I suppose the coins are not really BU, but they don't have much toning so they should be fine for this. The quarter was one that my dad got in his change a month or two ago and the dime was in some of my junk silver.    |
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
Lordy, lordy. You won't hurt that comic. The only reason I mentioned pulp magazines was because I collect those, too, and during the decades I've amassed a stack of sick children that can be dismembered with no real harm or loss of value.
Pulp magazines specifically got there names from the really, really terribly cheap paper they were printed on. That paper contains a lot more sulfur and a lot more chemical waste than most any other paper you can find.
But old comics are fine AS LONG as they are trashed. Although I haven't bought any new comics in two decades I would hate to hear that they were subject to abuse.
I'm sure there are plenty of other things besides pulp magazines (the paper started getting better in the late 1940's) that could do the trick.
Anything I've done to coins was to help save them from ugliness, not enhance their beauty.
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Replies: 37 / Views: 6,437 |
First Page
Posted 12/22/2015 11:53 am
