Melting Solder Off Of Classic Gold?

I'd send it back also, the melt value is too far from what you paid. It is real nice looking even with the spot, but he should have told you.

Another possibility is if he would refund part of your money, then the post office wouldn't be the only one to benefit from the transaction, and you both could end up happy.

I'm now working on Plan B as described in another thread. I purchased some silver test solution and applied a couple drops to the post. Both the coin and the post itself are completely unreactive. The solder around the post is very reactive, and releases lots of fine powdery red silt into the solution. The same red color results from treating a worn sterling shilling, so it appears the post is probably gold and attached to the coin with silver solder. I'm hoping that after multiple acid treatments the post will fall off the coin.

Unfortunately this isn't going to result in something like the 1851-C discussed in that thread. As the solder dissolves it is obvious that the jeweler ground a pit into the coin's reverse to anchor the post. So the only part of the 1860 date left is the 0.

Oh well. It's still a rare coin.

After about 20 solution changes the post, or what was left of it, finally popped off the coin. So the solution method seems to work better than the soldering iron. After a few more drops the LL of DOLLAR became weakly visible, along with a little bit of the 6 in 1860.

While the solder reacted rapidly with the solder, it never showed any reaction with the gold itself, possibly due to the short contact times (2-5 minutes).

Here's the thread on the solder removal from the 1851-C and some pictures of a cleaned up 1862. My coin cleaned up as well as these, but there is far more damage due to the jeweler's prep for the post.

https://goccf.com/t/135785&whichpage=2

Valuewise wouldn't the price be the same before and after ?