TITANIUM PIN
I found an excellent use for Tony's Pin (www.commonbronze.com). All of the pins are handy, you just have to get used to using them. I'm using them more and more, and would highly recommend them.
This is a demonstration of removing silvering from a coin. The coin was just hideous and barely recongnizable. I pulled out my arsenal of pins, brushes, prods, picks and dremel tools, and found that the titanium pin worked rather well; alot better than any other object I had at my disposal.
I used the pin the break the silvering away. It was mottled and ugly... it had to be removed. This took quite a bit of time, patience and pressure, but I was able to safely remove most of it.
I also used Cricket's brass brush in between scrapings. It's a bit hardier than the silver brushes I have, and works a bit better on removing tough/stubborn debris. The downside is that it is more likely to damage rough, broken or loose patinas. As you can see on the after scans, a couple areas along the rim are now showing metal. The rosette was showing metal initially. I finished it with a quick swipe of my 6 micron 3M radial brush. The coin hasn't been Renwaxed yet, but it already appears to have 3 coats... it is naturally this shiny. Quite a beautiful coin.
Amazing enough, the titanium pin didn't dig into the coin or remove the patina, even with the excessive force I was using to break the crud off. I believe I spent an hour and a half total on the coin.
The before shots were from experimenting with a digital camera. The coin in hand has a light olive green patina, and held at an angle to the light, almost looks silver.
There are a couple more spots that I am going to work on, but 98% of the silvering gunk is off. This is one case that the coin in hand is truly 100% better than the scan. And yes, it is the same coin.
