Acetone results

[prudden]

Hey all,

I've been reading the threads about acetone to de-contaminate coins. I've heard some people use it on every raw coin they by.

A few months ago,I bought an 1886 Morgan in an ACG slab. I posted pictures of it here back then. Well, a few of you noticed a problem. It didn't look natural. The face was too mark free compared to the rest. So,I sent it of to James Garcia to have a look.He confirmed that the face and neck had been re-frosted. He had no clue what was used or why it hadn't discolored. Me neither.

He suggested cracking it out and giving it an acetone bath. At the time I didn't let him do it,because I wanted to talk to the seller first. Never heard a word back from him. So,I decided after some practice to do it myself.I used pure acetone and distilled water to rinse, then left it on a paper towel to dry. It took two baths of about 5 minutes. The only change is to the face. Can you guys tell the difference? I took about twenty pictures and these are the best of the bunch.The mirrors hardly came out but they haven't changed.Original pictures first.

 

 

 

[physics-fan3.14]

Looks like an improvement to me. Glad to see you have a little more confidence!

[bsshog40]

I can't imagine how long a process and what it takes for someone to sit down and frost one of these morgans. I mean does a person have to hand paint these? spray paint them? How does aperson do this? Not that I would try anything like this, just wondering how much trouble a person would have to go thru to con people out of thier money.

[prudden]

I can't imagine how long a process and what it takes for someone to sit down and frost one of these morgans. I mean does a person have to hand paint these? spray paint them? How does aperson do this? Not that I would try anything like this, just wondering how much trouble a person would have to go thru to con people out of thier money.

 

Pretty f'ing ridiculous to do that,ain't it. I can only think that maybe they used an airbrush and paint. I paid MS 63 money for it, so I don't think I lost out. It was originally graded MS65 "Ultra" dmpl. ACG are insufficiently_thoughtful_persons. I was shocked when a friend of mine who knows squat about coins picked it out right away. I did tell him there was something enhanced on the coin.

 

I'm wondering if it will grade now?

[James_OldeTowne]

The difference is quite substantial in my opinion! You did a great job on this one, revealing the doctored surfaces in dramatic fashion.

 

Very educational thread!

[RareSov]

Looks nice, improvement in eye appeal !

 

Not that I would try anything like this, just wondering how much trouble a person would have to go thru to con people out of thier money

 

Amazing isn't it. If 100% of people devoted themselves to some constructive work, it would be amazing what man could achieve.

[RareSov]

Above the eye on the original pic.. what is that ? putty ?

 

What's that under the eagles beak as well ?

[Schatzy]

Great Job!! (thumbs u

[prudden]

Above the eye on the original pic.. what is that ? putty ?

 

What's that under the eagles beak as well ?

 

I think it may have been white paint. Whatever it was just dissolved in the acetone

Not sure what it was on the nose.There isn't much of a mark there.It looks worse than it is.About that thing on the eagle's beak. That was on the slab when I took the original picture.I didn't notice it until after I posted the pictures way back then.The reverse really had no problems.

By the way,it looks like some fluff from the paper towel stuck to the coin as it lay there drying.That's some of those little thread like things.

[WoodenJefferson]

Supposition:

 

If the frosted surface area was “acid etched” a bath in acetone would not have much effect on the out come because the surface of the silver composition was chemically altered (more or less permanent). If the frosted surface was prepared utilizing some type of aluminized window or automotive putty, the acetone will eventually dissolve the foreign substance and the underlying surfaces, to a certain extent, will then reappear.

 

Very hard to determine what exactly went on here, if anything, but tread very lightly with the subject matter at hand.

 

[prudden]

Supposition:

 

 

 

Very hard to determine what exactly went on here, if anything, but tread very lightly with the subject matter at hand.

 

I agree.Only do this as a last resort or if you have experience with it. James warned me there could be negative consequences including lowering the grade substantially or bad color changes.The reasons I tried this are that I didn't want to try to sell it even with the disclaimer that it was altered.and,I may not sell it at all and I decided to see if it would help.And it has.And lastly,it was buggin' the hell out of me!! It may need one more bath.

 

As far as I can tell,there was no etching.Something was covering most of the little luster breaks and small scratches. James Garcia looked this coin over and he could probably describe the original condition better than I can.

[CoinZip]

You should never place your coins on paper towels.

 

Paper towles are made from wood. They can leave hairline scratches.

 

Use a cotton cloth.

 

 

[jgrinz]

I was one in agreement that the frost was augmented.

 

Looks better now but all that work just to hide some surface blemishes - what a bunch of insufficiently_thoughtful_persons.

 

Coin look smuch better good job.