Techniques/ materials for doing a coin rubbing, anyone?

krueger

Would like to hear your techniques and materials used.

gumby1234

Sandpaper>

1630Boston

I'm no expert but I did find this article by Fred Michaelson, E-Sylum at the Newman Numismatic Portal
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/periodical/17039
.
"I just got this neat book by the Guttag Brothers of New York, containing amounts they would pay for coins. My question concerns the coin images: are they drawn by an artist or are they "rubbings"? I've heard of rubbings but I don't remember ever seeing any.

Guttag Coins of the Americas cover Guttag Coins of the Americas inside page
Great question! For those who haven't seen rubbings, they are actually very easy to make yourself, assuming you can still find a pencil and blank piece of paper in this digital age. Give it a try! Lay the coin on a flat surface and put the paper over it. Now hold the pencil flat, nearly parallel with the paper. Gently rub the business end of the pencil (the graphite, or lead) back and forth across the paper directly on top of the coin. Slowly an image of the coin will appear.

Coin Rubbing Practice your technique a few times and soon you'll be a pro. Back in the day numismatists often kept notebooks of rubbings of their coins as a record of their collection. In fact, when I liquidated a fellow numismatist's collection several years ago, the most valuable item turned out to be a book of rubbings – at $2,000 it sold for almost twice what the most valuable coin brought.

Rubbings don't damage the coin (at least, not circulated ones). They are fragile because the graphite can smudge if you are not careful. But in the days before scanners and digital cameras, when photography was slow and expensive, rubbings were a great way to record a collection, and still work in a pinch."

I found these instructions online:
www.ehow.com/how_4481075_do-coin-rubbing-paper.html
www.primeradicals.ca/math-mentors/activities/coin-rubbings/
www.blogmemom.com/art-math-activities-coin-rubbings

1630Boston

@krueger
Here are some done in 1865
Catalogue of tokens circulating during the Rebellion.
Groh, Edward (1865)

https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/564848

Sonorandesertrat

An alternate method is to convert a notary press, with the stamps replaced by rubber pads:

Use thin aluminum foil. The impressions are detailed enough to compare die states.

crazyhounddog

I have nothing.

ricko

@Sonorandesertrat.... That is interesting... I had not heard of that method before. I like the idea, but I would preserve the foil impressions in a plastic capsule - or one of those self-slab plastic holders. Gold foil is also available.... Great idea. Cheers, RickO

Sonorandesertrat

I cannot take credit for that idea. I bought items from the collection of George C. Perkins, who was a noted collector of Connecticut coppers. That press and dozens of foil impressions came from his collection. His coins were sold at auction by Stack's in 2000. While Perkins used a notary press, I am sure that just about any commercial embossing press would do.