Cleaning/Restaoring Liberty Head Nickel

[hav2fish]

Is there anything that can be done to restore/clean a very nice nickel that was made into a cufflink? The Liberty Head side is in beautiful condition. The cuff link hardware popped off fairly easily and all that is left is the soldering marks/remnants. Is she a lost caused? Sure would be a pretty coin. Thanks in advance.

 

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[Shortstack]

Welcome to the forum, h2f. If a jeweler made the cufflinks, the solder is probably silver solder. If a hobbyist did the work, it MAY be regular, low temp stuff. The low-temperature stuff can be removed by using wick material, you can get at Radio Shack, and a good, HOT soldering iron / gun. An iron of at least 35 watts or more. You simply put about a half inch of the wick on the solder spot, press the hot iron firmly on top of the wick, and hold it until the solder melts and flows into the wick. At that point, quickly remove the iron and wick. Repeat as necessary to pick up most of the solder. If silver solder was used, you use the same technique, but will need a hotter iron. Possibly a mini-torch. If the cuff-link adaptor was attached correctly, you will not be able to remove ALL of the solder because the attachment is made at almost the molecular level. Work slowly and carefully and good luck.