Does anyone know what will take the gunk out of the gaps and cracks of a Buffalo Nickel? I just purchased a lot of about 1000 buffalo nickels and found quite a few Uncirculated Buffs along with AU and so on. the problem is some of them even a 1913 s vII has black gunk around finer points on it. Im looking for a way to remove this but am not willing to "clean the coins" so acid, dips, brushes, whizzing is all out of the picture. Possibly Boiling or soaking? any ideas...
You can try an acetone dip (I know you said no dipping), but an acetone dip will not affect the luster a coin already has.
I have a couple sitting in some acetone right now I think I will give it 48 hours and see what happens then. do you know if there is a max amount of time a coin should spend in an acetone bath?
Can you post a photo of some of the black gunk? Take about 4 of the low grade with black, soak one in water, one in alcohol, one in detergent and water and one in acetone, for about 15 minutes, observe, and if the black stuff didn't come off, try a toothpick to see if the black gunk moves off. Yes it is cleaning, but the loss of 4 coins should be manageable. If none loosen the gunk, You will have to physically clean and manipulate the stuff off with stronger action, IMO.
Jim's on the money, there might be no chemical or cleaning agent that will remove that stuff you have. It's worth a shot, at this point you have nothing to lose.
I would use a cotton swab instead of a toothpick. Also, should you try the boiling method, try it on a few of the less expensive coins, then immerse in cold water, then into the freezer over night, then thaw in the morning.
Ok so I found what works best from a suggestion a close dealer friend gave me. I soaked the nickels in Acetone for about 48hrs and when the time was up I filled one of those tooth washing machines that sprays the water at high pressure to remove plaque with distilled water this removed almost all of the gunk with no damage or change in the coins luster or tone. Then I placed them back into the acetone to clean once more tomorrow.
lol. nice. good thinking and great job. can we have a pic or two? maybe you could even post a Step by step tutorial on this to help newbies like me.
If a waterpik removed it, then it was a simple, organic residue. Xylene would have probably been a better solvent of choice.
Why Xylene? from what I understand they're both flammable cleaners and thinners. I have no way to really take any pictures worth posting at the moment but I will write out a little step by step instruction. 1. Pick out the coins you wish to condition. 2. Add them into a clean glass or metal dish (acetone will melt plastic) and allow to soak for 48 hours. I prefer to use shallow glass jars, considering if you do not have a lid the acetone will evaporate within a short amount of time. 3. Remove the coins from the Acetone and spray with Distilled Water using a waterpik. (The grime may not instantly come off I spent about 20 minutes on one coin alone; remember this hobby if for patient people) 5. Once you have gotten it off all of the coins you are done, if not then place the ones that need another soaking into a clean bowl or jar of acetone for 24 hours. 6. Repeat step 3 until the coin is in the desired condition. A toothpick may come in handy too for those difficult areas.
