Antiquing Copper Rounds - A Fun Experiment

darth_morgan

I wanted to try my hand at antiquing copper with liver of sulfur just for fun. I got various results, from a stone-like appearance (appropriate for Medusa) to a psychedelic rainbow, as well as a "silver" and "blackened" look. My daughter enjoyed seeing this experiment too. A lot of fun for little cost.

ricko

Interesting.... Experimentation with coins is very informative and sure helps when evaluating coins you may consider purchasing. The methods of today's coin doctors (charlatans) are quite advanced, so learning from experimentation helps to understand process and possible results. Cheers, RickO

JBK

That's a great experiment.

Ahrensdad

Looks like a fun experiment.

Meltdown

Neat. What is a "liver of sulfur"? A liquid?

smalltime

I have some copper rounds with chickens on them.. How did you get the really colorful Medusa? That's what I want to do.

darth_morgan

@Meltdown said:
Neat. What is a "liver of sulfur"? A liquid?

Yes, here is a YouTube video showing a guy "blackening" some silver coins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m14A6Lfx1V0

@smalltime said:
I have some copper rounds with chickens on them.. How did you get the really colorful Medusa? That's what I want to do.

To get the colorful toning I dipped the coin into the solution for only about a second or two until I saw the color change. I immediately took the coin out and let the solution stay on for about 5 seconds before I placed the round into a baking soda solution to stop the toning process. That first Medusa coin I posted stayed in the liver of sulfur for about 1 minute, and it was pitch black. I used a Dremel tool like the guy in the video to bring out the details.

Gluggo

Wow I like your colorful Medusa. Don’t really care about the black look. I take it when you take the Dremel tool like in the video it would ruin any chance of grading as your technically polishing the coin . I don’t think I would want to do that. Just a simple rinse and pat down on a clean cloth, air dry would do the trick. Interesting on the backing soda to stop any further reactions. Thank you for sharing.

Bullsitter

Nice pieces, that antiqued piece is nice.

I did these about a year ago. Just some bullion that had some spots. Got some crazy colors within 2 minutes.
I used the Liver of Sulfur Gel. The middle piece is a proof, the other two, uncirculated.

.

element159

Interesting, the rainbow one is cool looking. This sounds like a fun experiment. You would never use collectible coins, but there are plenty of Cu rounds that are inexpensive, I could pick a favorite design and try a few, hmm...

darth_morgan

@element159 said:
Interesting, the rainbow one is cool looking. This sounds like a fun experiment. You would never use collectible coins, but there are plenty of Cu rounds that are inexpensive, I could pick a favorite design and try a few, hmm...

Yes, this is certainly a fun thing to try with cheap Cu rounds and maybe even some junk silver, or even a harshly cleaned Morgan or Peace dollar. I would like to practice some more before I would try it on one of those.

darth_morgan

Here's a sampling of some other colorful Gorgons the experiment wrought....

I even tried it on a counterfeit 1795 Draped Bust Dollar.

coinsarefun

@darth_morgan said:
Here's a sampling of some other colorful Gorgons the experiment wrought....

Yowsers!! these are so cool looking