hey gang!!..I bought a collection of bust dollars yesterday... you just dont see this many of these any more. Some of these guys had have had a rough life... but others arent so bad... enjoy

I'll take anything you can't stand to look at.

That is a sweet bunch of coins.

They can most definately be sent to NCS and see what they can do. It's a darn shame really.

Regardless of the shape those are in I'd be glad to own any of them.....especially the 95 and 96.....droooooooool indeed.

well the story i got was that they were in slabs... bought from heritage and there was a fire... and we can see what slabs do in a fire.. they were much worse when i got them but i was able to take off safely some of the damage and burnt plastic... im planning on sending them to ncs and seeing what if anything they can do...

Getting plastic off may be tricky, It may be worth it to see if any chemicals will dissolve the plastic without harming the coin, or try a ultrasonic vibration cleaner, it's worth a shot if they won't work on them. And if all else fails, send them my way.

I have used ultrasonic cleaners before with some success... but since the 1800 has been harshly cleaned before it got to me its prob gonna be my guinea pig... I am thinking of using a heat gun.. one used to melt plastics and such to see if I can heat up the remaining plastic and remove it without (hopefully) doing anything to the underlying metal... I soaked them in acetone over night and it took off some of the smaller pieces of plastic... which i assume with a lot more time will get the bigger ones too... but someone brought up the heat gun idea and i want to give it a try

Great catch. Those are some grand old coins.

As an unofficial coin doctor, my suggestion would be to try the acetone soak for several days if necessary. The heat gun is the way to remove a solid layer of melted plastic, but it takes real artistry to use it for removing pieces which are spaced with the coin surface exposed. Heat can cause uneven artificial toning at the temps produced by a heat gun. It's easier to heat a solid layer of plastic to the pliable state needed to peel it away from the coin than it is to heat just a patch of the plastic without overheating the coin surface around the patch.

Acetone, if clean and water free from a new can, can be used as a soak for a long time in a sealed container without affecting the color of a silver surface.

You can probably heat the plastic until it basically flakes off, but be aware whenever you heat precious metals they change. If heated too much you may even risk bringing a micro-layer of white fine silver to the surface, it will totally destroy any value the coin has. The heat gun most likely won't create enough for this to happen, but just be aware of that.

One thing to combat the problem of toning with heat is jewelers flux, cover the silver in it completely, and heat with a torch until its clear and "sticky". This not only keeps the silver from toning, but also cleans the metal. Then to remove the flux you need to soak it in jewelers pickle or boiling water.

You can also try to heat shock the plastic off, bring the metal to several hundred degrees, around 300 should be enough, and plunge it into cold water.....don't use ice water though, you risk cracking the actual metal if you do that....I've never seen it happen however, the cracking is all hersay.

hmmm i really want to be cautious because i want them to remain as original as possible... so i will try the acetone first... but this looks like it was pretty hard plastic... so we will see if it does anything..

What about freezing them with something like dry ice and then detail work with a toothpick or a thwack. It's hard to tell if there are lumpy deposits or a thin sheet.

If a solvent did not work I would use electrolysis - but they're not mine

just had another thought.... boiling water??? soften up the plastic and maybe make it easier to remove???

It's worth a shot, use distilled water though, tap water could have impurities that could cause trouble down the road.

good point.... another thing i am thinking about trying is high intensity UV light my pops uses them in the HVAC business...

Cool coins/

What's NCS?

Electrolsis might work, might not.I'v only done it once, on a coroded 2 cent.

The nature of this cleaning is to create an ion inballance so the top crud comes off.(From my understanding.)

The problem is that plastic is an insulator and electricty will not do much of anything to it.

Might be worth a try, but maby not.

I think NCS is numismatic consrevation sevice.

Man, I was just readung while I wait for an e-bay auction to end, but those pics made me log in! I would love to own a Bust anything. Unfortunately, at my current financial status, I'll be lucky to get a completly smooth 1/2 cent

Those are still awesome finds though. I've been buying up dollars like crazy tryin to complete my collection. Still looking for a few. Nice find though.

Any updates Matt?

well, we were able to heat shock a lot off of the 1800...which was my test coin.... but im not sure if i want to try it on some of the better coins...there was a junk bust half with some of the same stuff on it... we are going to try under the uv lights this week ill let you know