GLUE GUN
I have seen this mentioned before, but never have I seen before/after scans. Someone just saying this works, doesn't really make it so. So, I bought a $6.99 Cordless Glue Gun from Menard's. Let's see if there is any truth to the results.
These coins have been soaking for a bit. I let them air dray overnight, since I didn't want any splatter when the hot glue hit the water. The leftcoin has a bit of dirt, over what appears to be spurs of darker green encrustation, and starts at 3.7g. The right coin (which is showing light green patina) looks like it just has mud on it and starts at 6.7g. If this shows any promise, I'll grab a lightly soiled coin to try.
.After going outside for a smoke, the glue seems warm enough to try (about 5-6 minutes). I applied a liberal coat to one side (perhaps 2mm thick) and let them set for 10 minutes.
Hmm, this seems interesting. Quite a bit of gunk peeled off with the glue. I added the glue itself to the scan (the glue is on the right). The coin on the left is still 3.7g. The coin on the right is now 5.9g. Going to apply a couple more coats to each side, and I also have pulled a couple other coins randomly from a container to try.
Thinner layers of glue are much, much easier to remove. Also, don't try it on a stripped coin, it is nearly impossible to remove. I had a fully silvered coin, that was completely unattributable due to the flaky and thick silvering. The only viable suggestion I had was to remove the silvering, so while waiting for the glue to set on these coins, I was stripping it off. I decided to try the glue on the silvered coin, and have been fighting it for 5 minutes or so now.
After 2 applications on each side, this is what I have. Coins now weigh 3.6g and 5.8g. There wasn't much change in the left coin, except a small part of encrustation came off, revealing metal. The other coin lost quite a bit of gunk.
EXPERIMENT II
Trying 3 more coins. They weigh 8.2g combined.
After 2 applications, the coins now weigh 8.1g. The only major difference is on the Constantine Posthumous. Some dirt has been removed, but nothing extraordinary. It seems that it works good on a chunk of dirt... but that's about it.
