I recently bought a coin, and today having pulled it out, was shocked to find a
fair bit of green fuzz
had popped up. I was really reluctant to give it the old washing/baking soda boil, but didn't really have a
choice. Unfortunately, exactly what i expected might happen, DID happen, as you will see in the images below.
I have done this method on several LRB's before with minimal darkening of
patina or whatever, but nothing like this..
It leads me to suspect that this coin
had an artificial toner
applied to it, as I pulled it out of the boil to check it out, rubbed it lightly between my fingers and it came off like dirt (you can sort of see it on my
index finger in the photo). If so, no big deal I guess. At least (hopefully) i've saved the coin. I was just horrified to watch it happen as it was a really nice color.
what do you think??