Laser cleaning roached coin finds

[AkamaiOkole]

I know that lasers can damage coins by removing some of the metal so you shouldn't use it for most things. However, I was curious if anyone has used it on old roached coins that are unidentifyable otherwise? I see videos of people on the East coast or Europe where they find a lot of old coins that are too worn to identify. I would think there wouldn't be any harm trying it on them. Also, has anyone tried on things like no date type coins such as buffalo nickels. I played with Nic-A-Date 30+ years ago and it was fun restoring the dates.

 

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[Tpmetal]

It would be interesting to see, maybe more low powered highly focused passes could help create contrast by removing mostly the raised portions? Too bad most people do not have access to that kind of equipment.

 

[AkamaiOkole]

Bumping, hoping someone has some experience or insight with this.

 

[Gare]

I also am eagerly waiting for replies on this matter

 

[bc5391]

It should work, a 5w laser engraver will not engrave on metal. But if the metal is painted, it will etch off the paint revealing the different layers of paint underneath. I will dig out a coin that need a good cleaning and give it a shot.
Here is A photo engraved on wood,with different colors of paint, you can see the colors, the next no paint.

And one with no paint.

 

[bc5391]

I put the laser on 6 coins, ran multiple passes the first at 20% power then 30% at least 4 times. It did clean up the coins so dates can be read, but I was wrong, it did destroy the coins, the nickle has pot holes now, so does the dime.
the unknown penny turned out to be a 1944. the nickle was a 1970, the tarnished penny remained the same.

 

[AkamaiOkole]

Thanks for trying and posting the results Robert!

Although the outcome was somewhat disappointing due to damaging the coins by removing parts of them, I still think taking a no date lump and getting a date out of it is a success! Maybe some future generations of lasers won't be as rough on them.

I would still love to see what people who find those old 1700s era coins with no identifying marks try it out and see if they can at least identify or even date some of them!