Water marks on Pennies: is it Restorable?
Davidcoins
Posts: 65 ✭✭✭
Some of my pennies have these water marks on them, the marks look like the coin has been washed at the mint then it wasn’t rinsed off completely.
Are these water marks something we can remove (soaking the coin in vegetable oil, etc?)
If I send these coins through the restoration process at pcgs, is there a chance pcgs can get remove these water marks?
I’m still learning a lot so I’m very grateful for the feedback! I attached some photos as an example of what I’m talking about. I’m not interested in fixing these coins, but I have other pennies I’d like to remove these spots if possible!
When I submitted these coins in the attached photos 
for grading, I (stupidly) thought these water marks would be washed off by pcgs when they graded the coins! (So dumb I know!)
I’m asking because I have other pennies that I would like to get graded but the have these water marks, so I want to see about removing them. Thank you!
Comments
I am not aware of anything that would get that off, especially since its 38 years old. If it was something more recent, a soak in 100% acetone might help, but even that would have mixed results on copper.
Since you're new, don't clean coins. There are correct ways to conserve them though.
Go ahead and experiment with some of the lesser value cents. No doubt you'll get some suggestions here. But I think you'll find those spots are permanent.
Lance.
Pretty sure that they will not come off without damaging the coin.
You could try the service at PCGS, and they would tell you if the coin cannot be restored. Cheers, RickO
You will not be able to remove those without damaging the surface of the coin, they are what they are. I also do not think the spots had very much if any impact on the grades.
My Collection of Old Holders
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Thank you for your insight and suggestions, I was afraid those spots might be permeant, what a bummer 🥲
I have another new penny I found that I really like, but it has some of those spots, but I'll go ahead and send it to PCGS Restoration to see if they can do anything about it...