Cleaning Coins!

[das1979p]

I know that the answer is 'Don't!', but please bear with me.

I have bought two 1899 gold $5 coins for less than their melt value. They are very high grade with one exception. Someone has turned them into a brooch.

Is it possible to remove the soldered on parts? Has anyone else had any success with something similar? Can the coins be restored?

Thanks,

David

[Nordle11]

Welcome to the forum Das.

It is possible to remove the soldered parts, it is also possible to restore them fully. It depends on what you're doing with them, if you're making a quick buck then just sell them, if you bought them cheaper than melt. If you want to restore fully, it's probably going to cost you more than the value of the 2 of them.

There's a thread here somewhere, I'll find a link. From what I remember, the guy takes a good 6 months to a year for a full restoration.

[Nordle11]

Here's the thread

The guy's name is Alan Stockton, you can see in that thread an example that he's done for a member here. Very impressive. The price actually didn't seem all that bad either..

[das1979p]

Thanks for the help. The restoration certainly looks impressive.

I have no intention of selling them. I have a small collection that is slowly growing and these came up in a local auction and caught my eye. I'm sure that there will always be evidence of the mounting, I just wanted them to become coins again.

[Nordle11]

9 hours ago, das1979p said:

Thanks for the help. The restoration certainly looks impressive.

I have no intention of selling them. I have a small collection that is slowly growing and these came up in a local auction and caught my eye. I'm sure that there will always be evidence of the mounting, I just wanted them to become coins again.

Do a bit of googling in that case, a jeweller should be able to remove the mounts and excess solder, it just won't be as pretty as a fully restored coin. Will be cheaper and much quicker though.

[azda]

The surfaces of the REV look as though they have been spray painted, it might just be the angle of the picture but they do look a little rough. Does the auction where you bought these do coins normally? Would they know a genuine American $5 from a fake one?

Edited November 23, 2016 by azda

[das1979p]

It was a general auction, but they normally have coin lots. The auction house guarantees that coins are genuine and they will refund if they are fake (I asked them about a different lot where there were replica coins in a collection).

I think that the speckles are noise from the camera. The photos were taken in low light. They look good to my eye. The weight is about right (about 2g over the coin weight).

[das1979p]

My first response from a jeweller doesn't look too promising:

Without cutting the gold bits off the only other way is to heat them until the solder melts,  the solder will then spread with no way of removing the solder and heat marks without polishing which will further damage the coin.

Another forum in America discusses the possibility of using nitric acid / hydrogen peroxide to remove solder from gold. Any thoughts? I'll try contacting some other jewellers in the meantime.

[1949threepence]

Thing is, whatever way you choose to remove the soldered on parts, the residual damage will inevitably be severe. Don't forget, the initial damage occurred when the parts were soldered on. Removing them will just further that.    

[Mr T]

On 26/11/2016 at 8:47 PM, das1979p said:

My first response from a jeweller doesn't look too promising:

Without cutting the gold bits off the only other way is to heat them until the solder melts,  the solder will then spread with no way of removing the solder and heat marks without polishing which will further damage the coin.

Another forum in America discusses the possibility of using nitric acid / hydrogen peroxide to remove solder from gold. Any thoughts? I'll try contacting some other jewellers in the meantime.

I think the acid route seems sound - my memory is that most acids won't harm gold (though aqua regia which I think is a mix of nitric and hydrochloric acid will) but given that the coin is roughly 8% copper I'd be a little hesitant.