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Are you a Coin Doctor?? Apparently some members think that I am.

keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
Using this definition of a Coin Doctor from another thread, would you be guilty???-----any person or persons who cause a coin to come into contact with ANY substance, or solution, with the intent of altering the coin's details, surface texture, luster, color, or reflectivity for the purpose of enhancing the perceived value of said coin should be considered a coin doctor.

I will be the first to admit my deeds. If you have ever done anything which technically fits the parameters of the definition will you sign into the thread???

Al H.
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    keyman64keyman64 Posts: 15,650 ✭✭✭✭✭
    image

    A few of my coins have come in contact with acetone and MS70, in order to remove harsh contaminents, followed by a healthy water rinse and air to dry...and PCGS has not cared one bit! They have even given them their blessing with pretty grades and holders. image
    "If it's not fun, it's not worth it." - KeyMan64
    Not really looking for much these days but if I were, it might be a toner. :smile:
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    keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    you are guilty, now just admit it.image
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    SwampboySwampboy Posts: 13,230 ✭✭✭✭✭
    image

    I couldn't resist a dip.
    Do I get a cigarette before I get shot?image

    "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso

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    MsMorrisineMsMorrisine Posts: 39,409 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have.


    acetone to remove an accidental fingerprint.


    works great.
    Current maintainer of Stone's Master List of Favorite Websites // My BST transactions
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    PokermandudePokermandude Posts: 2,713 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Using this definition of a Coin Doctor from another thread, would you be guilty???-----any person or persons who cause a coin to come into contact with ANY substance, or solution, with the intent of altering the coin's details, surface texture, luster, color, or reflectivity for the purpose of enhancing the perceived value of said coin should be considered a coin doctor.

    I will be the first to admit my deeds. If you have ever done anything which technically fits the parameters of the definition will you sign into the thread???

    Al H. >>



    Key words bolded. I have at time used acetone on coins. I wouldn't consider bathing a coin in acetone as coin doctoring. Acetone is used to remove foreign matter rather than altering the coin itself.
    http://stores.ebay.ca/Mattscoin - Canadian coins, World Coins, Silver, Gold, Coin lots, Modern Mint Products & Collections
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    braddickbraddick Posts: 25,107 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Most, if not all of are, the question is how good are you?
    Most, if not all are not.
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    I am an acetone user...

    Acetone has less effect directly on a coins surface than does oxygen. It washes, not reacts to.
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    MsMorrisineMsMorrisine Posts: 39,409 ✭✭✭✭✭
    my intent was to re-alter the altered luster &/or reflectivity.
    Current maintainer of Stone's Master List of Favorite Websites // My BST transactions
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    WoodenJeffersonWoodenJefferson Posts: 6,491 ✭✭✭✭
    image
    Chat Board Lingo

    "Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
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    AMRCAMRC Posts: 4,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yup, remove PVC all the time. Anybody who does not, is not serving this hobby well at all. That is, by no way, shape or form, like using an exacto to make a Mercury dime full bands, or applying AT. I don't care what monestary you are from.

    And anyone who insists on "blast white" coins has many, many dipped coins in their collection. Except you of course.
    MLAeBayNumismatics: "The greatest hobby in the world!"
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    DennisHDennisH Posts: 14,040 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Guilty here.

    I've dipped with sudsy ammonia, Jewelustre, and acetone.
    When in doubt, don't.
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    SUMORADASUMORADA Posts: 4,797

    Just coincidence this is on a Sunday, no matter, I confess, I abuse Acetone.......image
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    JRoccoJRocco Posts: 14,277 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm a goner.
    Some coins are just plain "Interesting"
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    UncleJoeUncleJoe Posts: 2,552 ✭✭✭
    My name is UncleJoe and I am a coin doctor.

    And I am very good at what I do! image

    Joe.
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    papabearpapabear Posts: 851 ✭✭
    I am an acetone user...

    image if I inhale to much of the fumes

    Acetone is used to remove foreign matter rather than altering the coin itself. image

    Papabear image
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    PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 47,510 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'll bet some of the biggest coin doctor haters have dipped coins sometime in his or her past. Of course, most experienced collectors don't consider coin dipping to be doctoring.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

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    DieClashDieClash Posts: 3,688 ✭✭✭
    I have to admit, I've used water, every day dish-soap detergent, olive oil (got some nasty pennies soaking since 10/10/2010!), Koinsolv (aka acetone), E-Z-Est and MS-70. Ya gotta love chemistry and coin specie reactants image

    Oh, and I've even tested abrasives like tooth paste on junk, silver-tarnished Roosies! Works pretty good on ridding the tarnish, but creates god-only knows how many hair lines! image

    Guess my past practices "enhancing" coin surfaces makes me a "Coin Dr., Extraordinaire"!

    image
    "Please help us keep these boards professional and informative…. And fun." - DW
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    BONGO HURTLES ALONG THE RAIN SODDEN HIGHWAY OF LIFE ON UNDERINFLATED BALD RETREAD TIRES
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    LotsoLuckLotsoLuck Posts: 3,786 ✭✭✭
    I am a coin doctor. How else am I going to make my cull ebay purchase look MS?
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    notwilightnotwilight Posts: 12,864 ✭✭✭
    I have accidentally run pennies through the dryer. They often come out quite attractive. Then I spend them. --Jerry
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    jmski52jmski52 Posts: 23,956 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I carved up a 1944-D with my pocketknife in order to get a "1914-D" once. And I did it on purpose.image
    Q: Are You Printing Money? Bernanke: Not Literally

    I knew it would happen.
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    AnkurJAnkurJ Posts: 11,375 ✭✭✭✭
    Never used any chemical. Have used a taco bell napkin though. Does that count?
    All coins kept in bank vaults.
    PCGS Registries
    Box of 20
    SeaEagleCoins: 11/14/54-4/5/12. Miss you Larry!
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    LindeDadLindeDad Posts: 18,766 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I prepared a submission yesterday and all that were not in plastic already, got a acetone rinse.
    image
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    lasvegasteddylasvegasteddy Posts: 10,486 ✭✭✭
    right here
    you can put me in this crowd too...image

    i'd be a rich one too if i could figuire out the silver eagle milk spot problem

    keets...this is absurd kindergarden type of stuff...i swear

    i look at some corroded-pitted-enviromental damage done by thos whose pride prevents them from "conserving a coin's life"

    lords know's pvc only grows like verdigus

    strike if i'm wrong but some coins sent in for spot review can fall under doctoring by pcgs themselves...ngc even has ncs

    bunch of over inflated ego's want to think there better by not saving a coin then those who do...let um be i say
    everything in life is but merely on loan to us by our appreciation....lose your appreciation and see


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    Sure I have ...when I had my Jeff Nickel Registry Set, I enjoyed finding and submitting as many of the dates as possible..
    Definitely had to learn how to remove black grease from many of the dates pulled from original rolls...esp. the 195X groups

    Dipped quite a few coins with Jeweluster, MS70 etc when they NEEDED it...it worked miracles on removing and/or preventing further damage from
    many enviromental and storage issues.

    I did experiment with some of the chemicals that were discussed on the forums as being part of Coin Docs "toolbox" if you will
    I felt that it provided me with an excellent education to what was clearly AT, and what was perhaps "market acceptable"

    Never did it to rip anyone off , it was important for me to learn these things since it was in this time period that so many
    "wildly" toned coins started coming into the market from questionable sources....saved myself a lot of money and frustration.

    Greg

    Hi Al image
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    PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 47,510 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I carved up a 1944-D with my pocketknife in order to get a "1914-D" once. And I did it on purpose.image >>



    There's a difference between a coin doctor and a counterfeiter.image

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

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    ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭
    If I don't like the coin, I sell it, trade it, or give it away. Plain and simple.


    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
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    keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    i am a strange sort of Coin Doctor who has resisted all the forum educational experiments with match-heads, water heaters, window sills, TacoBell napkins, old Wayte Raymond pages, ovens, potatoes, products sold on eBay, vacuum chambers with sulfer dioxide, super glue, etc. etc. etc ad nauseum. everything i've done has been an attempt not to "add" something to a coin but, rather, to remove something which didn't need to be there and was a potential danger down the road someday.

    i am a Coin Doctor who believes in addition by subtraction if indeed i am a Coin Doctor at all. i don't believe that i am.
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    << <i>i am a strange sort of Coin Doctor who has resisted all the forum educational experiments... everything i've done has been an attempt not to "add" something to a coin but, rather, to remove something which didn't need to be there and was a potential danger down the road someday.

    i am a Coin Doctor who believes in addition by subtraction if indeed i am a Coin Doctor at all. i don't believe that i am. >>



    Good explanation and good point.


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    nwcoastnwcoast Posts: 2,902 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I confess my sins here and now to all.
    I thought it was for a good cause and the health of the coin.
    I have dipped, dunked, soaked in Olive oil and or distilled water for ancients. I have used solutions of ammonia for the removal of PVC in a collection that had been buried under ground. I have used and by some accounts even abused prodects that come in a little brown bottle- on copper.....

    and I thought that I was 'helping' with the application of this tonic.... Helping a poor unfortunate copper cent that by no fault of its own had been stricken with corrosive verdigis disease. I have soaked diseased victims in acetone in an effort to 'cleanse' their filthy skin as well.

    I am a multiple substance user by most accounts!!!!

    I have NEVER though, used cosmetic surgery or tonics to artifically age a patient ( ehhh...coin) or patch up their injuries, though i do confess to leaving a piece that had been over-dipped, on a window sill, in the hopes to bring some natural color back into their pale complexion...

    Yes, I AM guilty!!! And, I am a sinner!!!

    I guess this is a perfect case of denial.....and that the road to Hell is paved in good intentionsimage

    Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014

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    rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have used acetone to remove PVC and other organic deposits. I experiment with other chemicals to learn more about metallic surface reactions. I have never sold a coin (other than gold). All my 'doctoring' is for either preservation or education. Amazing what one can learn with a little effort. Of course, that can be depressing when viewing coins for sale in various venues. Cheers, RickO
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    UtahCoinUtahCoin Posts: 5,366 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Over the years I've used EZest dip, 100% isopropyl alcohol, Distilled H2O, MS 70, Olive Oil, some sort of high powered automotive gunk remover (as a last resort), Ultra Sonic bath, Acetone.

    What time and where do we report for the firing squad?
    I used to be somebody, now I'm just a coin collector.
    Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
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    georgiacop50georgiacop50 Posts: 2,909 ✭✭✭✭
    I am a doctor. Have been for nearly 30 yrs.

    In fact in the late 80's I wrote a little ditty entitled "Confessions of a Coin Doctor" and sent a copy to PCGS.

    A week later I got a letter back from HRH himself, asking if I might consider working for PCGS! (I still have that letter)
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    gonzergonzer Posts: 3,080 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I'm a goner. >>



    Get a second opinion, all is not lost.
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    GaCoinGuyGaCoinGuy Posts: 2,856 ✭✭✭✭
    Guilty here.

    I've used Ezest mixed with 100% isopropyl alcohol or distilled water to remove haze and acetone from time to time for errant fingerprints.

    Heck, I've even taken some cull silver and exposed them to "less than ideal" environments, just to see what would happen.

    Send me to the Green Mile image
    imageimage

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    tahoe98tahoe98 Posts: 11,388 ✭✭✭


    Are you a Coin Doctor?? Apparently some members think that I am.


    ...i always thought you only played one on TV! image
    "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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    renomedphysrenomedphys Posts: 3,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Acetone and olive oil, but not for a while.

    I bought a bottle of MS70 once to experiment. Ruined some brown unc common wheaties. Now they're all blue and purple.
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    yellowkidyellowkid Posts: 5,486
    You could construe that statement to exempt using acetone to remove a foreign substance.
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    keyman64keyman64 Posts: 15,650 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Acetone and olive oil, but not for a while.

    I bought a bottle of MS70 once to experiment. Ruined some brown unc common wheaties. Now they're all blue and purple. >>

    When using MS70 on mid to upper end Mint State silver coins, I have had great success. I would be very hesitant to use it on anything else. I would never use it on a coin that has seen circulation or on a coin with an impaired surface (Copper that has turned brown) etc.
    "If it's not fun, it's not worth it." - KeyMan64
    Not really looking for much these days but if I were, it might be a toner. :smile:
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    mr1931Smr1931S Posts: 7,000 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Anyone know what I can use on dug old nickels to make 'em look better?They are always very dark.

    I don't want to us overly harsh chemicals that will etch the surfaces and absolutely no abrasives.

    Mild but effective treatment that will result in my dug buffalo and v-nickels looking almost like regular is what i am looking for.

    The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
    Albert Einstein (14 March 1879--18 April 1955)

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    Klif50Klif50 Posts: 797 ✭✭✭✭
    I freely admit to having dipped many thousands of coins, circulated and uncirculated during the 5 years I worked in a coin shop from 1976 to 1981. If it came in and had tarnish it got dipped, if it came in and we didn't like the look it god dipped and sold and no one really cared that it was dipped clean. I also used some dellers darkener on some half cents at the customers request, he was afraid to do it himself. The look of the coins were vastly improvded but who knows what time has done to them. I have dipped every coin that came out of a harco coinmaster coin album after they started to turn green from the PVC in the plastic. Most were dipped in acetone but that's still dipping. I was a coin doctor. I worked with a guy who experminted with coins in his kitchen. He would never tell me how he got the wild colors (in potatoes, in with match heads, baking, etc) but I found that a nice white coin would sell a lot faster then than a coin with a bunch of wild looking color on it. Oh, and yes, I did use an art gum eraser on a particularly nasty looking barber half and since everyone seemed to be cleaning barber coins that way it didn't look all that different to me.
    So, when you pick up a coin and say, looks like it was dipped long ago, that was probably me fondling and then gently dipping and rinsing your prize coin.
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    AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 25,030 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I use acetone on almost all the raw coins I buy to be sure there is no recent man caused
    residues like fingerprints or sneezes, etc.
    I have used MS70 on proof coins with haze and have contemplated using MS70 on an 1884cc
    that is in a GSA pack at the moment. It is DMPL except for the haze. Having no experience
    on non proof coins I have hesitated, for about a year, popping it out of the black UNC case
    and doing the deed. Don't know if the results will be better or not.

    bobimage
    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
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    DoubleEagle59DoubleEagle59 Posts: 8,431 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm guilty of dipping for a higher grade.

    Tried toning a few coins in my time with terrible results.

    I'm a Doctor!!
    "Gold is money, and nothing else" (JP Morgan, 1912)

    "“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)

    "I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
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    ConnecticoinConnecticoin Posts: 13,272 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I am a serial acetone dipper, and dabble occaisionally in MS-70. I think many, including myself, do not consider this type of coin conservation (i.e. removing contaminants that can harm a coin) to be coin doctoring.

    Most of the time when you ADD something to the surface, that is coin doctoring. Also, I believe most consider removing metal (i.e. lasering, removing a mintmark, lasering off hairlines or lasering in FB or FBL) to be coin doctoring.

    The "grey area" is dipping (i.e. "Jeweluster") and toning coins in an album or envelope. The reality is, if such activity does not ruin the coin, then it becomes "market acceptable coin doctoring".
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    johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 32,235 ✭✭✭✭✭
    were all going to jail image
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    mr1931Smr1931S Posts: 7,000 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Okay i will figure out what to do with my dug nickels on my own..image

    It's the ATer's and puttiers that are the most reviled in the hobby.Pure profit motive is the driving force.These people only care about fattening their wallet not the person they stick the coin they worked on with.These kinds of coin doctors are in the same category as counterfeiters.The business is fooling people for their money.image

    I'm just trying to make my nickels look a little better.If that makes me a coin doctor to some,so be it.

    The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
    Albert Einstein (14 March 1879--18 April 1955)

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    Klif50Klif50 Posts: 797 ✭✭✭✭
    Sonic jewelry cleaner should make those dug coins look good enough to pass in commerce. Good luck.
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    TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 45,012 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You're not in charge of what some members think you are. Neither am I.
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    mr1931Smr1931S Posts: 7,000 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Actually,i'm not trying to make my nickels good enough to pass in commerce.I have a so-called "finds" collection that the more interesting coins like dug buffalo,V,and shield nickels reside in along with all silver and some copper pieces.

    Now,if I were to want to sell some of my dug nickels,I would disclose the fact that the nickels were dug and subsequently treated to make them appear more like regular, "unlost" nickels.

    Nickels that have been in the ground a long time almost always have surface etching that is easily seen with a 10x loupe.My goal is mainly to remove the darkness so that the date,mintmark,if any,and other features can be more easily seen.

    Thanks for the suggestion about using sonic jewelery cleaner on my nickels,Klif50.I'll experiment with a few dark Jeffersons and see if I get acceptable results before using on my buffs,v's and shields.image

    The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
    Albert Einstein (14 March 1879--18 April 1955)

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    TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 45,012 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Mr1874, try white distilled vinegar. It's a household item that might remove the "rust" on nickel. I have had limited success with it. Don't leave it in there too long. My girlfriend swears by it, for cleaning. My mom always said to use "elbow grease", which makes work of it.

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