Mineral Oil for Coin Slab Photos - Before-n-after

Bikergeek

I picked up a lovely 1836 LM-2 half dime at the ANA in Pittsburgh this past week. Today was photo day. My motivation is to have a digital record of my set that I can refer to - because the coins go live in a bank box, and they're too doggone small to see anyway when I'm trying to compare or study them.

This coin had a few scuffs on the holder - especially one by Liberty's nose - that made my first pics unsatisfactory. So, since it's a rainy Sunday afternoon, I decided to experiment with shooting through mineral oil. See the before (left side) and after below. Same camera, lights, and minimalist post-processing in both sets.

The key supplies I used: mineral oil, a suction ball to control dispensing the oil, a funnel to drain the slab, and a glass to catch the drained oil. (Not pictured, plenty of soft microfiber towels to wipe the slabs off.) Since I will probably do this again, I'll speed up the workflow next time by putting a screen over a shallow catch pan to drain the oil into. That way I can just flip the slab and let the obverse drain while I oil-n-shoot the reverse - then flip it again and slide it off to the side to finish draining the reverse, allowing me to get right to the next coin(s) as needed.

If anyone's curious, here's the PCGS TrueView for this coin. Clearly a Ginger type of look, but I'm more a fan of MaryAnne.

bsshog40

I'm curious to see if after the oil on the slab eventually dries, if the scuffs don't come back. Looks good for now though.

Mr_Spud

Looks great, the mineral oil really helped. Much clearer, more focused on the coin and the scuff marks are invisible.

I do the same thing, only I use Compass Oil. The particular Compass Oil I use is isoparaffin, which is a volatile mineral oil that slowly evaporates so I don’t have to worry about leaving any residue on the slabs. I just blot it off with a clean paper towel and just let any slight residue evaporate off. It’s this one

It costs more than regular mineral oil, but the pint I ordered is basically going to last forever because I use so little each time. I’ve also used it successfully to remove tape/sticker residue off of slabs, works great.

I used it because I knew about isoparaffin from a project at work I did in the 1990s. The project was to create a perfume sampler in a twist off soft gelatin capsule where we used isoparrafin to replace alcohol in perfumes. Alcohol migrates right into and through gelatin so we needed an odorless solvent to replace the alcohol that didn’t leave any residues but that didn’t migrate into gelatin. Isoparrafin worked great, I’m named on a patent that we filed for for that project. Anyways, I did a search on isoparrafin after reading about people using WD-40 and Mineral Oil for coin photography for scratched slabs a couple of years back and I remembered about isoparrafin and figured it would be better/safer than WD-40 and Mineral Oil because it doesn’t leave a residue and found they were selling it as Compass Oil.

OAKSTAR

Have you considered Verdi-care?

coinbuf

Very nice result.

robec

@OAKSTAR said:
Have you considered Verdi-care?

Does Verdi-care work for scratched slabs?

Cladiator

Nice image improvement. Love the half dime, that's a fun die marriage that won't break the bank. Yours is PQ, good pick up.

logger7

One of the popular dedicated coin slab products was unavailable last I checked due to inability to get ingredients.

http://www.slabrenew.com/home.html

OAKSTAR

@robec said:

@OAKSTAR said:
Have you considered Verdi-care?

Does Verdi-care work for scratched slabs?

Don't mind me. I've just been advised, I'm the subject of a silver alert! I'll try to find my way home now.

BTW: Tell the OP to send the slab to me. I'll fix it for him.

Before:

After:

AUandAG

I just raid the kitchen for cooking oil (not olive oil).
bob

Bikergeek

Great info in this thread, really appreciate the ideas kicking around here! I didn't clarify very well: my use of the oil was just for the duration of the photo session. BUT, seeing that there are some decent (automotive?) products, @OAKSTAR, I may just try to conserve a few of my scruffier slabs!

@Mr_Spud, that compass oil looks even better than mineral oil. I may get a little bottle of it and just do a side-by-side. Now that I see what this can do for me, I fear I have some re-takes coming up.

@Cladiator, you know the feeling when you get a sweet coin that fills a spot! I had a lower-grade coin in an NGC slab but it didn't cross at the right grade for my PCGS set so I was pleased.

Tom147

I haven't heard this before. Learn something new every day here.
Oakstar, I would like to know more about your " conserving " slabs. Products used, in what order and how you go about it.

Mr_Spud

Here’s a before and after picture of a Lincoln cent where the after used the compass oil

Mr_Spud

And unlike buffing, it works on NGC slabs that are scuffed up too. Sorry, I don’t have a better “before” picture, but you can see that it has whitish splotchy scratch/scuff marks right over the portrait of Liberty that totally are invisible with the compass oil on it.
You can barely see Liberty through the white splotchy scuff marks, I think someone tried to buff it and it made it worse

Here’s with the compass oil on it

OAKSTAR

This is pretty much it @Tom147. A couple of squirts of the clear liquid lubricant on the slab and a few dabs of the white paste compound on a clean cotton cloth. Circular motion on the slab. Repeat as needed. No drills, grinders, power tools or heavy equipment!! Just elbow grease. I didn't need or use the lens sealing wipe or the lens base coat wipe.

Tom147

Having trouble reading the Turtle Wax bottle on the left. If you could identify that container I would be forever grateful. Looks like a trip to the auto parts store in the morning. Thank you so much for your reply. Like I said, learn something new everyday here and I've been at it for 59 years.

OAKSTAR

ChangeInHistory

Plastix does a good job clearing up slabs as well.

Vasanti

I wouldn’t put anything like that on a slab, particularly if it has a volatile chemicals in it. They can move through the slab to the coin.

Goldminers

I usually just use music cd scratch remover for scratched slabs especially before crossover tries with minimum grades.
Cheap and it wipes off the slab clean when dry and no residue. Easier than sending in for reholder.

The compass oil idea above does appear to work very well for quick photos.

marcmoish

@OAKSTAR said:
This is pretty much it @Tom147. A couple of squirts of the clear liquid lubricant on the slab and a few dabs of the white paste compound on a clean cotton cloth. Circular motion on the slab. Repeat as needed. No drills, grinders, power tools or heavy equipment!! Just elbow grease. I didn't need or use the lens sealing wipe or the lens base coat wipe.

great info shared here, thanks!

Have you ever seen any damage to the coin in the slab, somehow, or the amount used on the slab is too small?

OAKSTAR

@marcmoish said:

@OAKSTAR said:
This is pretty much it @Tom147. A couple of squirts of the clear liquid lubricant on the slab and a few dabs of the white paste compound on a clean cotton cloth. Circular motion on the slab. Repeat as needed. No drills, grinders, power tools or heavy equipment!! Just elbow grease. I didn't need or use the lens sealing wipe or the lens base coat wipe.

great info shared here, thanks!

Have you ever seen any damage to the coin in the slab, somehow, or the amount used on the slab is too small?

Zero damage to any coin in the slab. If there was ever any inclination of any damage to any coin, I would never even attempt this!

The amount of this product used on the slab is completely subjective by the user.

marcmoish

I totally figured that much.

Was just asking so "everyone" else gets it.

OAKSTAR

@marcmoish said:
I totally figured that much.

Was just asking so "everyone" else gets it.

Thanks for asking.

Bikergeek

@Mr_Spud - love that 1800 half dime! One way I got around the problem of NGC holders, with the shadows at the periphery on the side of my main lights, was to put a little third fill light shining in the opposite direction. I'm going to try to tweak the brightness of that third light (now that I'm using the oil, which changes up the whole look-n-feel) so as not to "flatten" the image with too much light and hide any luster.

And all this makes me think, kudos to the great photographers on the boards, because it's part science and part art and it ain't easy.

Mr_Spud

I even use the compass oil when the slab isn’t scratched because it eliminates slab glare and evens out the lighting. In this picture you can see how the 2 straight rows of led lights bend around the top perimeter of the compass oil “dome”. This allows me to bring the lights right over the coin and the domed top of the bubble of compass oil keeps the light reflection and the glare off the coin. If it didn’t bend the light like that there would be reflections of the lights right on the coin itself. This is with my iPhone just using autofocus. It makes the slab glare so invisible that the autofocus sees only the surface of the coin and focuses crisper making it look like a raw coin

Goldminers

Amazing photos and coin details.

Pnies20

Very nice. I like the die crack in the LM-2

Vasanti

Lots of “compass oil” is actually a chemical called Isopar L, which is a hydrocarbon isoparaffin. It’s also a solvent.

ChangeInHistory

The no glare part makes me want try it now. Thanks @Mr_Spud.

Zwiggy

@Vasanti said:
Lots of “compass oil” is actually a chemical called Isopar L, which is a hydrocarbon isoparaffin. It’s also a solvent.

Isopar solvents are easily available in the homecare industry, some (like L and M) are odorless, non-toxic and volatilize very slowly - so they will stay around for the photo shoot and disappear about 1-2 hours later if you do a basic paper napkin blot. They are pretty pure and being an isoparaffin - have no ability to ooze into or destroy acrylics (of which the slabs are made of). One shouldn’t worry about destroying the coin inside at all but should careful the slab isn’t cracked though.

The lack of glare is pretty cool!

Mr_Spud

Yes, the compass oil I’m using is isoparaffin, Isopar L. Here’s the Material safety data sheet for the Isopar L which is what Ritchie Compass Oil is made of
https://www.ritchienavigation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Isopar-L-MSDS.pdf
My biggest problem is that I only started using it when I was about 1/2 way through imaging all my slabbed coins, so 1/2 of them don't look as good as the other half. I had brought them all home at once in 2020 and took them back to the bank safety deposit box after I took the pictures of them so it was too much trouble to bring the ones back home that I already took pictures of so I just live with that😧

messydesk

I always have a small dropper bottle of unscented lamp oil, a bottle of PlastX, and a rag with me when I go to shows. It's quite a bit thinner than mineral oil. The oil is usually all I need to make scratches disappear for photos. Sometimes I need to polish the slabs. Once in a while, the slab is beyond repair. The oil is also good at removing sticker goo from slabs.

Bikergeek

@Mr_Spud, I finally got a pint of the Ritchie compass "oil," but the product that just arrived is "SH-0154 compass fluid," and it seems pretty thin - like it might run off the slab pretty quickly. Just checking with you before I open the bottle - is there a thicker oil product I shoulda gotten, or is this the right thing? The fine print on the label says it's ISOPAR L, with a composition of "Aliphatic hydrocarbons CAS #64742-48-9." (PS. Now my hands are tired after typing that. heheh)

Mr_Spud

@Bikergeek said:
@Mr_Spud, I finally got a pint of the Ritchie compass "oil," but the product that just arrived is "SH-0154 compass fluid," and it seems pretty thin - like it might run off the slab pretty quickly. Just checking with you before I open the bottle - is there a thicker oil product I shoulda gotten, or is this the right thing? The fine print on the label says it's ISOPAR L, with a composition of "Aliphatic hydrocarbons CAS #64742-48-9." (PS. Now my hands are tired after typing that. heheh)

That’s the right stuff, Isopar L. It’s isoparrafin which is volatile mineral oil. It’s thinner than mineral oil because it’s volatile, meaning it slowly evaporates. I like that because the residue after you wipe it off just evaporates off of the slab.