Mint State Restoration Emulsion

[Mayadigger]

Ave!

Way to many months ago we received a free vial of MRS, just to play with.

MRS is a liquid soak product that professes to remove copper-based encrustations.

Much to our doubts...it worked exactly as described. After two days of soaking and swirling the MSR liquid in the nest, we discovered that all the encrustations had been removed (including the original patina, sad to say....).We'll experiment further for patina-loss issues.

So far we've found that MSR can be an awesome tool, but, like all similar products, you have the gage the soundness of the coin's metal beneath the encrustions.

Each of the three examples below were slightly cleaned in a different manner.

If anyone is interested, we can walk you through each individual process.

Best regards,

Kevin

[Jay GT4]

Very interesting Kevin.  In your opinion could the coins shown above be cleaned to reveal that much detail by more conventional cleaning?  I could see how this could be useful for those really hard encrusted coins that look like slugs.  My worry is how potent it appears to be.  Any way of toning down the formula?

[Joe Sermarini]

I tested it and decided not to carry it in the Forum shop. I cannot recommend it for ancient coins.

[Andrew McCabe]

I tested it and decided not to carry it in the Forum shop. I cannot recommend it for ancient coins.

I can understand that, many nice coins might be destroyed. Still, I've some crusties that are no-hopers for me (because I'm not a coin cleaner). If there were a last resort and easy method of chemically removing deposits, I'd sure try it.

[Mayadigger]

Ave!

From Joe -

I tested it and decided not to carry it in the Forum shop. I cannot recommend it for ancient coins

No problem, Boss...just wondering how far and in what way you tested it. Can you provide us all with your before/after photos explaining why you did not care to carry MSR on Forum?

Our results, so far, have been positive. In many ways, the MSR solution has proved to be as just as good as GG's solutions; in most ways more controllable in five to ten minute soaks.

From our end, we have found that MRS, when used as described, can be another excellent ancient coin-cleaning product that will lead you to further cleaning methods.

1st Coin Below -

This encrusted coin was soaked and brushed in MSR for four hours. Once we discovered that the metal was intact, we zapped, smoothed and repatinated.

2nd Coin Below -

After a number of short 10-20 minutes soaks and touth brush shrub, this coin was mechanically cleaned with hand tools, keeping the original patina intact.

3rd Coin Below -

Int this case we allowed MSR to ride. As seen, all the patina was removed.


All for now,

Kevin

[Joe Sermarini]

Can you provide us all with your before/after photos explaining why you did not care to carry MSR on Forum?...

No.  If I wanted to do that, I would have included it in my post.

...In many ways, the MSR solution has proved to be as just as good as GG's solutions; in most ways more controllable in five to ten minute soaks...

I don't use GG either, except to treat bronze disease. 

[Tony A]

The stuff might be worth a try - and has to beat zapping. Maybe it has some uses as a next-to-last resort for those of us who can't afford to discard the nasty ones or may be hesitant to do heavy-duty mechanical cleaning on a particular coin. And as distasteful as it may be, you can always re-patinate ...

MSR may not be the first, best choice in most cases, but I can see situations where there are few alternatives - especially on those red and black concrete-like encrustations. (Now that might be an interesting experiment.)

Just a thought.

Tony