PVC question - Results

Darkhorse

I think I told you about one shop I frequented in Germany. Many coins were in a bad state and had PVC poisioning.
I bought one simply because I couldn't find a better coin of the Karlsruhe variety (the city where I lived).
Anyway, as you can see on the right there's a dark mark at 1 to 3 o'clock. I put the coin in nail polish remover and the dark spot is now mostly a dark red which seems natural enough, but the darkest spots have now turned GREEN. I put the coin in the nail polish remover bath for about 3 hours. Should I put it in for a longer time?

1960NYGiants

Phil,

I would use pure acetone (available at Home Depot or Lowes). I also would use a cotton swab (Q-Tip) to help agitate the crud off. Just don't press hard. Soak - swab - rinse - repeat. Also try the olive oil treatment: soak for weeks - rinse - acetone - swab - repeat.

BTW - nice peice / token. What does it commerate?

Gene

Darkhorse

I pressed pretty hard with the q-tip but it seems no hairlining took place, luckily. The piece, even in the dark area, has a lusterous brown appearance.
Like many German pieces around this time it commemorates the Franco-Prussian war and the unity of Germany that took place in 1871.

PuddlePirate

That is a nice peice. You seem to be correcting the PVC problem well enough.

spoon

That's a really nice example, at least better than mine

So are you still over there? I notice you said "lived". (yeah, it's been a while since I've stopped by the forum.)

Like Gene said, I'd use acetone or xylol instead of nail polish.. they're a bit stronger and don't have the trace amounts of crud. If that doesn't work, well, I dunno. The coin doesn't look terrible in the pic. Maybe it's regular ol verdigris, try the olive oil approach?

BTW, have you spotted any of the paper notgeld from KA circa 1923? Some of it is pretty nice and most is still cheap.

Darkhorse

I'm no longer in KA. I had some fun there for a little while but teaching is not really what I'm made for. I'm going to England on March 3rd to begin working as a designer/artworker in earnest.

But I didn't see any of the Notgeld you mentioned.

By the way spoon, I photographed one of your old coins when I did work for Dimitri. Look for a pedigreed coin thread by syraq around here somewhere.

spoon

Ah, cool! Man, you did a good job on that Cabo Verde.. I remember it had some funky lustre.

Well, glad to hear about your new job.. sounds a lot more fun. It's always better to do something familiar. I'm about to apply for another job here myself.

Maybe I'll put up an OT thread on notgeld sometime soon.. I've been going more for that stuff than coins lately, don't know why.

Darkhorse

Here's the best I could do.

PuddlePirate

Well that is a very nice improvement overall. It looks like you have taken care of the problem.

1960NYGiants

Hice job DH. Did the overall color change that much or is it because of the different backgrounds?

Gene

Darkhorse

No real colour change. I think the first picture was taken in direct sunlight, the new one under a light bulb.