:shrug:My first try at Electrolysis....:shrug:

[Wisconsin Pete]

This quarter was totally black and you couldn't even see the date on it...so I tried Electrolysis on it ...my first attempt and after 45 minutes the coin came out looking copper like...did I burn the silver right off of it? Was it in to long....any help would be great

 

[RobRcer]

My guess would be that you are using copper wires to hold the quarter, and some copper went onto the coin. How many volts were you using? HH

 

[tomtowns]

n/t

 

[Skully]

12Volts max for 5 min.

Here is a link

http://gometaldetecting.com/cleaning-finds.html

 

[CC2_IN_CA]

Not bad, but keep in mind electroysis can damage valuable coins.

If you look at coin with a magnifying glass, you will notice pitting.
The faster (higher voltage) and length of time will make it worse.

Always put the object to clean on the negative electrode,
so you don't plate it instead of removing black layer.

A stainless steel piece is good for the positive electrode.

Add a little salt to make it conduct better, and run just enough
voltage to make it start bubbling.

 

[Gary T. Jupiter Fl.]

The copper plating of a coin is common even when doing silver coins. Your coin has a copper center so that is where the copper came from. Silver coins even those old Spanish shipwreck coins were only around 90% pure and copper was one of the impurities. If you end up with a copper plated coin after electrolysis there is an easy fix. Radio Shack sells ( I hope they still sell it my bottle is at least 10 years old ) a product that is used to etch copper electronic boards. I don

 

[TobyH]

A few coin facts:
Up through 1964, US dimes and quarters were 90% silver/10% copper. Since 1965, they have been made with a composition of: outer layers of copper-nickel (75% copper, 25% nickel) bonded to an inner core of pure copper. The regular issues haven't contained any silver since 1964, although there have been some special silver proof issues which were the same composition as the pre-1965.

Half dollars have a similar story except that from 1965-1970, they were comprised of outer layers of 80% silver, 20% copper bonded to an inner core of 20.9% silver, 79.1% copper. Since 1971, they have been the same composition as the other "clad" coins.

Also, "nickel"s are actually mostly copper (75%, 25% nickel), except for the wartime composition (1942-45) which was 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. This was done to eliminate the use of nickel, which was a critical war material.

Cheers,
Toby

 

[Joe G]

What voltage? I went to a 12v and it was much more efficient on silver. Found an 1831 large cent (very bad condition) this summer diggin' dirt and decided to give the electrolysis a shot. What little detail I could see through the crud was actually the crud. It cleaned up great but what little detail there was went bye-bye However, I've tried it on some black silver and it worked great. Just have to be careful and don't use it on anything that has even a remote possibility of being valuable.

 

[swingman]

To paraphrase what others have been saying - clad quarters have a core of pure copper (look at its edge), with an outer layer of
copper-nickel. Sorry, no silver content (I wish!).
Electrolyzing such coins releases copper into the solution, which then 'plates' onto to coin's surface. Clad coins are better cleaned by tumbling.