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Lint on inside of slab - RESOLVED WITH SCIENCE!

I've just got a PCGS slab with a very obtrusive piece of blue lint stuck to the inside of the viewing window. Any tips for at least shifting it to the side? I've tried tapping the slab, but no luck. I was thinking about applying some static electricity, but I don't know a good way to do that. Suggestions?

This is doubly irritating, because this is a replacement for an overgraded PCGS MS70 that I had to return to the UK, paying for postage both ways. I really don't want to ship this thing to be reslabbed.

Comments

  • LindeDadLindeDad Posts: 18,766 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1-800-447-8848.
  • pendragon1998pendragon1998 Posts: 2,070 ✭✭✭
    HA! Science to the rescue!

    My genius wife suggested that I should replicate the rabbit fur and balloon experiment from high school physics. Not having a balloon, and the cat not willing to stand in for a rabbit, I blew up a gallon sized ziplock baggie and grabbed my fleece jacket from the closet, and set to work.

    I vigorously rubbed the baggie-balloon on the jacket, building up an static electrical charge on the surface of the insulator (baggie). I then applied the charge to the slab. Nothing much happened, but after I tried it a few more times, I gave the slab another few taps on the table, and this time the lint easily released and is now resting on the far edge of the viewing window, completely separated from the coin. The lint would not budge during previous attempts to tap on the slab, so I suspect I weakened the static bond between the lint and the slab plastic, allowing me to move it out of the way.

    image
  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 31,074 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Naturally Linted, Intentionally Linted or Artificially Linted in your opinion?
    theknowitalltroll;
  • pendragon1998pendragon1998 Posts: 2,070 ✭✭✭
    Looked like a synthetic fiber from a blue sweater. CSI is on the case.
  • ConstantineConstantine Posts: 2,368 ✭✭✭
    David Hall was seen wearing a blue sweater in the summer of 2006. He should be taken in for questioning.......
  • pendragon1998pendragon1998 Posts: 2,070 ✭✭✭
    It's a 2010 coin. lolz
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,063 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>It's a 2010 coin. lolz >>



    So it's not beyond the Statute of Lintations...........


    image
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • messydeskmessydesk Posts: 19,902 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Looked like a synthetic fiber from a blue sweater. CSI is on the case. >>


    Wasn't from the Bulgarian blue fiber factory outside Sofia, was it? You don't want that anywhere near your coins.
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Now when the coin begins to tone, specifically by the lint, will it be AT or NT??? image Cheers, RickO
  • RGTRGT Posts: 508 ✭✭


    << <i>an overgraded PCGS MS70 >>



    Why haven't you been banned for posting remarks like this? image
  • Dog97Dog97 Posts: 7,874 ✭✭✭
    Interesting, glad you got it sorted out! I spend hours beating on my slabs because the coin rotated in it.

    The "experts" say it's impossible to judge a coin from an internet image and since you didn't even at least provide an eBay quality scan I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that since coins are intended to circulate by being carried around in pockets, and pockets naturally contain lint, and the lint wasn't even placed on it intentionally, (intent means a lot in these circumstances) in no way can it be construed as Artificial. That should address the issue poised by BAJJERFAN.

    A word of warning when subjecting coins to sudden bursts of static electricity: This is true, I'm not making this up: There used to be a guy here & on eBay that was smoe kind of mad scientist, I forget his I.D. but surely smoebody remembers, help me out here, he used to put coins on smoe kind of impulse generator that would shock coins, and the sudden inplosion of electrons collapsed the gravity field, kinda like a black hole, and it reduced the coins to about 1/2 of their original diameter and he sold hundreds of them as novelity items. He would even make custom shrunk proof & mint sets of dates, mm, type, etc. Maybe TomB can explain it better because he's a rocket scientist and knows all the big fancy words & theorys and all I know is what I read in the VAM book and on the internet and we all know how reliable that is.

    You shouldn't be buying American coins from the UK anyway. The British are not to be trusted since they moved the production of Triumph motorcycles from Meriden to a rice hole in Thailand. Obviously the quality of Brit coin products followed the same decline.
    Change that we can believe in is that change which is 90% silver.
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yep.. Dog is right. You can find 'coin shrinking' on the internet... explains the entire process. Pretty amazing. Cheers, RickO
  • RussRuss Posts: 48,514 ✭✭✭
    The static needs to be a bit more powerful than that generated by a baggie. image

    Russ, NCNE
  • dlmtortsdlmtorts Posts: 730 ✭✭✭
    This is the link for one of the firms that shrinks coins. I bought a couple of them. Really neat.

    http://teslamania.delete.org/frames/interesting1.html

    I don't know how to link it any other way.

    Edited to add - they have pics on that site.
  • You are the Louis Pasteur of slab cleaning!image
  • LotsoLuckLotsoLuck Posts: 3,786 ✭✭✭
    This might work if you still have hair...comb your hair with a basic black pocket comb and try closely running the comb over the plastic after doing so.
    I do know this works with a old bar trick, paper match balanced on upright nickel with glass over top.
    Good luck.
  • pendragon1998pendragon1998 Posts: 2,070 ✭✭✭
    The 'MS70' coin it replaced:
    image

    The replacement coin looks a lot better. It's definitely properly graded.
  • pendragon1998pendragon1998 Posts: 2,070 ✭✭✭


    << <i>You are the Louis Pasteur of slab cleaning!image >>



    Make that the Nikola Tesla of slab cleaning image
  • keyman64keyman64 Posts: 15,499 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Secure the slab and then attach a vacuum sealer(used for vaccuum sealing plastic bags) to the edge of the slab, closest to the edge where the lint is....then let er rip....granted it might suck the label out too. image
    "If it's not fun, it's not worth it." - KeyMan64
    Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners. :smile:
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,063 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Yep.. Dog is right. You can find 'coin shrinking' on the internet... explains the entire process. Pretty amazing. Cheers, RickO >>




    The internet, eh?
    Is that thing still around???

    image
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • SwampboySwampboy Posts: 12,976 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Please all be very careful when appying electrical charges to slabs.
    You wouldn't want to give away your location.

    The entertainment can never be overdressed....except in burlesque

  • Cam40Cam40 Posts: 8,146
    i tryed that too but it only made the hair on liberty stand up.
    image
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,063 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Gives new meaning to the phrase: "Will that be cash or charge?"


    image
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • Cam40Cam40 Posts: 8,146
    careful when appying electrical charges to slabs.
    You wouldn't want to give away your location.

    image
  • tahoe98tahoe98 Posts: 11,388 ✭✭✭


    << <i>This is the link for one of the firms that shrinks coins. I bought a couple of them. Really neat.

    http://teslamania.delete.org/frames/interesting1.html

    I don't know how to link it any other way.

    Edited to add - they have pics on that site. >>




    ...here's the linky
    "government is not reason, it is not eloquence-it is a force! like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." George Washington

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