AN INHERITANCE & MY NEW & RAPIDLY GROWING COLLECTION...HEEEEELP!!

[copper123]

I love the way basils whole life is given over to pleaseing his trouble and strife

Best episode the one with mrs richards the deaf woman  , when he wins the £75 on the horse and ends up having to give it away to the deaf old bat

 

 

 

[copper123]

[Peter]

I am now googling episodes.If you can beat this I doff my hat.Cheered me up.

 

[Garrett]

yeah love the British comedies, almost as much as the coins.

Carry on.

cheers Garrett.

[Peckris]

[PWA 1967]

You lost for words Peck 

[CarlosSilver]

Fawlty Towers is great but I was quite enjoying grown up coin geeks having a cyber spat. Now THAT is funny. 

 

[declan03]

Hi Prep.

A nice collection of coins you,ve inherited there. Certainly not scrap with the 1905 worth about £300 at least in that condition.Best way to clean grubby pre 20s coins is to get a piece of tin foil. Lick the shiny side, put the coin on it, wrap it air proof tight, hold it inside your hand for 3 or 4 minutes, then take it out and wash it with a sponge and warm soapy water. Hey presto like new and no abrasives involved! !

[mrbadexample]

This was my acetone test piece Prep:

 

[Stuntman]

^^^ Well, the after is immeasurably better than the before.  Was that just a short immersion in acetone and then just air dried?

[mrbadexample]

Swabbed with a dipped cotton bud. Shame it wouldn't take the gouge out too. 

[Rob]

There is verdigris and there is verdigris. The coin above has obviously reacted with plastic and this comes off relatively easily being recent. Buried coins which have reacted with soil ingredients in the longer term will develop a much harder verdigris. In the case of something such as the styca seen below, the pastel coloured parts will clean up with time using a soft brush.The emerald green deposits are like glass and can only be removed chemically.

[mrbadexample]

As I understand it (and I'm happy to be corrected), the green on the coin I swabbed isn't verdigris but a residue of the chlorine leaching out from the PVC as it degrades. Acetone won't touch verdigris but removes the chlorine residue nicely. 

[Rob]

Copper chloride, copper acetate, both are green. There will be the occasional free chlorine molecule present from when the PVC was made which will react with copper, though PVC is actually quite stable. More importantly, the plasticiser used in the PVC to keep it flexible will also leach out and degrade. Longer term I would favour the latter as they are often phthalates with a pair of hydrocarbon chains. Although several homologues are used, they all exhibit the same basic chemical reactivity.

[mrbadexample]

I'm not convinced, as there's no chlorine in the phthalates, but I don't really know enough about the chemistry involved. Not that it matters really - the green from old PVC can be removed with acetone. The green from being buried can't.

The coin I posted had been in PVC for about 35 years. I don't know how bad it gets if left for longer.

[Coinery]

The main problem with trying to remove verdigris is that it's merged with the copper surface of the coin; it needed the copper in order to create itself! So, the big issue then is, to remove the verdigris is also to remove some of the coin, and what you get left with isn't pretty! If you have a verdigris spot in the field that sticks out like a sore thumb, then sure a pitted brown spot will look much better. However, if you have a completely green coin (as in Rob's example), you'd better get to likin' green pretty quickly!

[ThePrepper]

hi guys....sorry been real busy last few days getting ready for my biggest show of the year...20 hour days, hardly eaten, hands killin me
and all thats fine i'm just pee'd off ive not had any time for coins lol....

while i'm here a quick thanks to Sir Perkins and Sir PWA....nuff luv! lol

garrett.... Still amorous, and fond, and billing, like Philip and Mary on a shilling. HAHA!

ok....carlos....i'm not a coin geek....i'm a budding coin geek....and i never intend to 'grow up'....not ever.

declan....thankyou....i'll get more scanning done when i can and get some more on here...funnily enough i was watching a vid on youtube
made  by detectorist addictedtobleeps recently where he cleaned his hammereds with foil, spit and then RUBBING...and at the time i
thought, that cant be good....your non-rubbing approach definitely seems more sensible, i'll give it a try very soon, ta again.

hey mrbad....yup yup same story here....the vast majority are nowhere near as bad as your example....and its only really noticed when the
coins are on the slant, then the green is more visible on the surfaces and edge too...a few are more affected and where appropriate (ie not
rare/valuable) i've acetoned/budded and theyve come up lovely like yours....and as you said this is pvc damage not verdi.

stuntman....as i mentioned in the thread-starter....i've read on many forums people say 'quick dip and then air dry' which to me seems total
bollox....on a coin that bad the acetone doesnt dissolve it all, rather softens it....you will then need to swab/bud to get the gunge
off....in fact youll need to use several buds....and 'asfarasiknow' so long as youre gentle then abrasion marks on a circulated coin are
negligible, at least with my 18x loupe and perfect eyesight i cant see any harm anyway...and short immersion, no matter...''pure'' acetone is
harmless to coins 'asfarasiknow'....you can leave coin in as long as you want 'asfarasiknow'...i use acetone not only in my work but also
on vintage sewing machines and on metal its fine....just keep it away from lacquer, plastic, decals, paint etc etc...

hi rob....again as i mentioned...there was only one (AMAZINGLY) coin really whacked by verdigris, a 1797 penny which is now in olive oil for 6
months as a test piece...will rub it every coupla weeks and change oil for duration....of course many of the coins have the odd spot here and
there but nothing major and i have been practicing with success some of what i learned on here about getting spots off...'softened
toothpick', gentle prying etc etc...also had some tips from sir pwa ta dude! i've just about finished isolating eah coin now after spending a
good coupla hundred quid on capsules, flips, wallets, storage boxes and so on so verdigris spread will hopefully be no further issue for
my babies....and after reading everywhere i go about verdicare i thought i'd see what thats all about too and my order arrived
today...when i get a chance to try it i'll take pics as i've seen others on here have done before....its not cheap though huh? for a
tiny lil' bottle.....we'll see.

as for robs second post....this is why not a coin geek yet....because i have absolutely no idea what any of that means haha!! i'm proud to
be the degenerate i am lol!

hi coinery....ta for your input....as said though the main issue i've got is pva residue....like on the 1902 crown...had a good chat with
pwa and sure i understand that the residue has already done its ''reacting'' by now therefore the philosophy of 'dont clean coins' is
a good one but, being the newbie i am, i'm trying to find that middle ground and learn the boundaries....should only take me '40 years' but i guess thats a blink to the coin and itll be fine-ish till then.

i understand that to some of you dudes a 1902 crown in less than unc condition is nothing remarkable and certainly affordable....as i'm
sure you also understand there are many people/collectors on here that have very limited budgets and would love to own one in that
condition....its not unc but it is very nice still (under that gunk is all his hair, beard etc)...now me and  the coin, we're in
the middle, not rich or poor, and its not unc nor worn....so after spending weeks and weeks becoming ever more confused and frustrated by
the conflicting (and i've now learned often wrong) info on multiple forums across the world i then decided to start this thread after i
was given this collection.....

the 1902 is nice, has value, isnt mint and looks horrible...would it be harmed further by the stuff on it? would the stain end up in years
to come adding to a real nice 'tone'...would i damage it if i acetoned and devalue....scratch, wear?...should i leave it alone?....and so
on....and this extends across the many hundreds of coins i've got here....which to clean...which to leave?

and to be honest, whilst ive certainly learned a lot in a short time and have a better 'eye' and understanding, more knowlege and
experience, (and again mainly thankyou to PWA here) through my own experiments and tinkering and by listening to you guys and reading
your posts/threads, i still dont know what the hell to do haha!

some people believe that when youre in a 'situation' that action is the answer....others believe in doing nothing....

i've been collecting pennies for a while now and as pwa confirmed bronze/copper coins are perhaps the most troublesome and prone to
probs....but most of this inheritance is silver....about 110 crowns....about the same in florins etc....the majority of which need
'a wash'...'a clean'....but i've still pretty much decided to do nothing for now.....which is tough because everything looks dull and
lifeless...or has a black dirt circle on it like the 1905....or a stain like the 1902....the older copper halfpennies in the pics are so
tacky from pvc they actually stick together....and leave your fingers sticky...SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME TO ACETONE THEM!!!!

i did clean the date run of 50pence pieces, they were rather green....and i've done the lower value and 'less-unc' threepences
(quite a few of the higher value/nice condition ones i left alone and with gritted teeth sealed them away in their yucky condition....feels
sorta like having a nice hot bath then when you get out putting back on your dirty socks and undies....kinda wrong yeah?!)...am now working
through sixpences....then theres shillings, farthings etc.

for now all the crowns, halfcrowns and florins have been put in new capsules....being the higher value coins i'll come back to them when
i'm a fully fledged geek and can hold a conversation with rob and understand the language he speaks lol!

ok....i need 3 to 4 hours sleep before getting up to kill myselfagain...night!

prep

ps and just to annoy pwa a bit more i'm going to say thanks again and hopefully get a 'wind ya neck in!' haha!

Edited May 14, 2017 by ThePrepper

[ThePrepper]

PPS....i'm dreading what peckris didnt say.....

[mrbadexample]

9 hours ago, ThePrepper said:

the older copper halfpennies in the pics are so
tacky from pvc they actually stick together....and leave your fingers sticky...SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME TO ACETONE THEM!!!!

They won't get better on their own.

[ThePrepper]

define 'better'.....

[Peckris]

On 10 May 2017 at 8:16 PM, CarlosSilver said:

Fawlty Towers is great but I was quite enjoying grown up coin geeks having a cyber spat. Now THAT is funny. 

 

Isn't that a contradiction in terms?