Dirty Little George IV Verdigris Cleanse

It has been a while since I have done a removal and seeing as this one entered my collection recently, I thought it is time I got down and dirty sorting it out.....

As it came to me in its poor state..



Moved to the place where all the work will begin. A change of light gives the coin a raw look.




So, First stage is to turn up the heat on the green death and give it a taste of its own medicine and get destroyed. Sure looks good watching the flame turn green to show the verdigris getting destroyed.



Now the green death is eliminated, time to remove the burned crusty layer from the coin to reveal as much natural colour from the coin as possible.




First quench complete which removes the dark burned areas, next is the tackle the white limescale looking layer (Burn residue)



Nearly there..... Coin is still showing more signs of the white residue, 1 more should do it!




With a little TLC the final product is now back to original tone and completely verdigris free, time to take that final image with its treatment with WD40 applied. (The shine dissipates after a day or two, so this one stays in the open air until then.)


Another coin locked back into a timeless state with no more worry of it being corroded again and taking the enjoyment from its next owner.

Until Next time....

Well done!

Nice!

Amazing as always.

Excellent work! I love it with the green death best, too bad it pits coins.

That is the one part I wish I could get around. Pitting shows and reminds me just how important it is to catch and kill verdigris on coins asap, the longer it is there, the more damage it does.

Talking of which, I have that dilemma with a slabbed unc 1854 Half Penny. Even though it is sealed and far less likely to spread, reading that label with Verdigris written on it stings me every time I see it. If it progresses and begins to pit, I will kick myself. Its like a form of torture I purposely bought knowing it was there.

Obverse is perfect....... Reverse however is not.





I will leave it for now, but my god the urge to split it open and restore is killing me

Briefly, the purpose of conserving is to remove from a coin’s surface those contaminants which pose a threat to the coin’s integrity, and/or which may be impairing the ability to view the surface of the coin. Thus, the inherent characteristics of the coin are not changed, which is to say, the physical structure of the metal is not materially altered, but instead, matter foreign to the composition of the coin is removed, visually uncovering the unaltered coin. There is no material loss of the coin’s metallic content itself, only the loss of foreign matter lying between the coin’s surface and the source of observation (the viewer’s eye).
You are a pro Fluke.

What great way to put it, Thanks Ed

I hate to be 'that' person, but the face on your coin's obverse is George IV, not III.
Awesome work, though!

Quote: "CassTaylor"​I hate to be 'that' person, but the face on your coin's obverse is George IV, not III.
​Awesome work, though!

​Thanks for spotting the typo!..

What do you quench the coin in? Do you quench it hot right out of the flame?

after burning how to remove the black hard coating.....

Quote: "ken6528"​What do you quench the coin in? Do you quench it hot right out of the flame?

It varies dependant on the coins surface damage and condition, it is quenched in a series of non chemical precisely mixed liquids under very controlled conditions. Each coin will be different, even coins of the same type, year and problem. If one has more verdigris than the other, the method is quite different.

I wont reveal any more as it has taken quite a while to perfect my preservation/restoration repair method, so I will keep that secret close to my chest. I am happy to do the work for anyone, but I do not want to reveal how it is done. It is also quite dangerous if you do not know what you are doing, I do not want that on my conscience.

Quote: "arvin11"​after burning how to remove the black hard coating.....
​

The quenching method is used sometimes to removed the black charred residue but other times it is painstakingly slow with a soft wood toothpick. It really does vary dependent on the severity of the coins condition.

The low boiling point of Ammonium hydroxide makes it very unsafe with my methods. It may have many uses, but is not involved in any work I do. While the variants I use are equal, they are not chemical based.

I do not want permit necessary chemicals in my house with the so called "terror" alerts.

Quote: "Garycrant"​Not even dihydrogen monoxide?

​“dihydrogen monoxide” — another name for that life-giving substance we identify as H2O, or more commonly, “water”
Really – was that necessary?

Quote: "Garycrant"​Humor?

I kinda got the feel from the first of your responses where you were going with the extravagant remarks. ​It is a bit tasteless, but the answer is still No...

Dear Sir(Fluke)!!
It has been only couples of day I have joined this forum and was very delighted to see your post in,as I was also facing this problem for my coins...BUT.....
I am very disappointed by your answers Sorry but ur post is like a typical Sales man who will show you his product tell about it half thing and suddenly tell you to buy the thing and know your self....
I believe this forum is for sharing Knowledge and helping other,You cant enslave a knowledge it is free for all I hope one day i will get the answer and share will all.I have already started the experiment after burning It can be clean by kerosene or Diesel when the coinis cold.

Kindly dont take my words harshly.......

Hi Fluke sir….

After looking your post I was so excited I could not stop my self ...that I picked up the coin and put it on a gas flame it was burning green I was so glad to see this verdigris getting burned off and thought this is the end of this green thing ….thank you SirFluke for this beautiful idea….

I remembered we used to clean carbon black engine parts with kerosene during overhauling to remove black carbon deposits with emery paper. So I tried with the burned coin (without any Scrubbing with any emery paper)Just use a old tooth brush and about 80% the black burned carbon is gone.

Glad to see you have give it a go and removed the corrosion and more importantly doing it safe!

To make sure the Verdigris is completely charred, make sure the flame changes from green to orange, if there is still green flame, there is still verdigris.