Lacquered Coins And Lacquering Coins

People unnecessarily demonise lacquer in my opinion. A well applied traditional lacquer will preserve the coin with mint red indefinitely, even with light handling. It might need to be relacquered on occasion, but that is rather simple too. Take a look at 18th century conder tokens - there are thousands and thousands with lustrous mint red surfaces, even today, because many collectors back then would lacquer their coins. I also think the 'look' of lacquer is nice too, but that is an opinion.

Removing lacquer is simple and doesn't require rubbing the coin in any way. You'll need pure solvents (not store bought nail varnish remover), which can be bought in high purity. Take the coin, put it in a sealed container with plenty of solvent in it and let it soak. This will dissolve the lacquer. Dispose of the solvent safely (not in the sink), then wash the coin further with clean solvent. Then, for best results, repeat. The repeat shouldn't be necessary if it is good lacquer (not wax or acrylic, which are a different problem that is not easily solved). If you find the lacquer is not removed by one solvent, you can try others. The order I would try things in is Acetone, Ethanol, Isopropyl Alcohol, Methanol, Toluene, Xylene (the last two being quite bad for one's health).

Applying lacquer well is hard and you would be well served to watch videos of different application methods. A good spray system is best (but not using tins of spray lacquer, which tend to be polymer based and potentially irreversible). Painting on the lacquer is bad and will leave abrasions and a bad surface; a dip system might work. Whatever you decided, you need to make sure the coin is clean (I'd use acetone for this) and dry - anything on the surface when it is lacquered will be held against the surface until the lacquer is removed and damage can be done beneath the lacquer. If you find a good lacquer to use, practice first on some old copper pennies until you are confident. I believe the traditional lacquer is shellac - this doesn't last as long as a modern archival lacquer though and will yellow with age.

I have several iron/zinc notgeld coins that I think were lacquered. I think it was a fairly common thing to do to them. The myrtlewood money that I found recently was lacquered, but that was by design. It gives them a really nice appearance and probably helped preserve them too.

Lacquer was the original Airtite holder.

Lacquer is still around. Why do we use other methods?

One problem with lacquer is it doesn't expand and contract at the same rate as the coinage metals. If storage temperatures vary too much the lacquer can develop cracks or even flake off allowing toning to develop on the surfaces below the cracks. If you don't keep a close eye on the coins toning and/or damage can develop without you noticing.