Great example of what soaking a coin in oil can do.

[JRocco]

I have always believed in letting a coin soak in mineral oil to help loosen heavy crud and in some cases corrosion. Understanding, of course, that any damage done to the surfaces by corrosion or verdigris will not be reversed. I put this One Penny Model, silver (1844) in oil a year ago and decided to take a look at her last night. Well take a look. Pics taken with a better camera, but you can get the idea. This one will go back in the oil for a while longer to work a little more, but the difference already is amazing. Look at the die crack on this coin that was only partially evident before. All that has been done was rolling a Q-Tip soaked in oil over this one, and prodding a little with an oil soaked toothpick to loosed things up a little.

[thebeav]

Hard to believe it's the same coin. No doubt about which one I'd want.....

What is a "One Penny Model" ? I've never seen one.

 

Paul

[WinstonWare]

Wow. What a difference a year makes Seriously though that’s interesting. Nice post .

[JRocco]

I am not sure how to link this, but here is a link to a great description. I had no clue what these were either.

 

Hope I can post this link here...

http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=587604

[bsshog40]

Nice experiment with good results there J.

[dooly]

Hard to believe it's the same coin. No doubt about which one I'd want.....

What is a "One Penny Model" ? I've never seen one.

 

Paul

 

common english toy/fun money

[rrantique]

Looks like that mineral oil is working just great J. thanks for the post

[SkyMan]

Interesting post. Thank you.

[James_OldeTowne]

Wow, that's a remarkable transformation! Thanks for the excellent post.

[IGWT]

I don't think I've ever seen a more dramatic transformation!

[MBA101]

I am wondering how long it would take...I started my '09 VDB Lincoln and an '08 Indian in olive oil this past winter (there was a posting on the Lincoln) and I still dont see much of a difference. Guess I still have a whole lot of waiting ahead...

[Keleum]

Just because I'm dense. Can one of you describe the process in more detail, sounds interesting.

 

When you say soak in oil, do you mean you fill a cup with mineral oil or whatever drop in the coin, put a lid on the cup, and put in on a shelf. Or do you mean you swab on oil, and then put the coin back in an airtite. Then at some later point you take the oil off?

 

What would you use to remove the oil, like a koin-solve or just swab it off?

[lkenefic]

Wow... Do you think it was the nature of the vertigris that allowed soaking it in mineral oil to have such dramatic results? Here's one I soaked in olive oil for about nine months with not much luck... [sorry...no "before" pics]...

 

 

 

It was a little better than when I started...but not that much better. Do you think there's a difference between mineral oil and olive oil...orher than in my salad??!!!

[MikeKing]

amazing.

what did you use, olive oil?

[JRocco]

amazing.

what did you use, olive oil?

 

Just good old generic mineral oil Mike...the $1.49/pt variety . Olive oil goes rancid too fast.

 

Hey Keleum, To answer your question, I just put some mineral oil in a small plastic cup and put the coin in...heads up for about 6 months and heads down for another 6 months (usually). I do nothing but let it soak. I have found that a coin like this in oil does nothing if only left for a few months- it really needs time.

Once removed, I take a Q-Tip dipped in the oil and kind of roll it around over the coin...remember-these are not MS examples usually...so the Q-Tip does no harm if gently used. I will take a small wooden branch or toothpick and soak it in the oil for a couple of minutes to soften it up, then gently pry around with it...nothing extreme. This is an oily mess by the way so have a lot of paper towels around. When you are done you can use acetone to get all the oil off the coin or just let it be...oil will not hurt a coin in any way that I know of.

I have been doing this for decades and have never made a coin worse...sometimes they do not improve much, but they usually do A LOT.

Hope this helps.