Here's a fairly rare Commercial Pnuematic (cp) Arizona license plate. It's one of the highly desirable copper years. Will a vinegar/ salt bath remove the dark patina? Thanks for any help
I would second Toms reply. Do not clean it!
If you are selling it, let the buyer decide if they want to clean it after buying.
If you are keeping it, leave that sweet look.... it takes a LONG time to get that way.
If you absolutely have to clean it, I would recommend Brasso. That stuff is like a miracle worker.
Thank you for the responses. I want to keep it and I don't like the dark patina. I removed the tarnish via vinegar and salt. It must have been through a fire and about 30% of the copper is gone. I think I will try to plate it back on with some copper tubing. Someday.
Oh my... that is toasted now.
The vinegar and salt really did a number on that. Try leaving it outside for a couple of weeks and see if looks any better.
I wish you tried the Brasso as that makes my copper clubs shine like they were just poured.
The tragedy was the fire. It melted some aluminum plates. I think the heat caused it to lose some copper. The vinegar was just a wipe, I don't see how it could have dissolved the copper.
Are we talking a lot of value? Historical value has limitations that won't determine value such as rarity, condition, demand.
I know a guy that was all bummed because he shined up a brass mortise. The mortise had a retail of 30-50$
Not enough to be concerned over. I know a lot of people want to keep things as they are. I understand that
but I will weigh value and enjoyment over value if the value is low enough to not matter.
If everyone kept stuff as found there would be no restored hot rods. Plus a lot of stuff as found looks like crap.
That's true some like the aged metal, others don't. I have quite a few old plates with great patina, but I sure don't find the patina that was on the copper plate to be pleasing at all. If I had sold it and found out later it was missing some of the copper that would bother me. Why would anyone prefer that eludes me. As stated, I hope to replace the copper. That would give me quite a bit of satisfaction. It seems that the majority of posters are of the opinion that removing the patina somehow removed the copper. You are wrong with that assumption. While I was not happy to find that copper was missing, I sure am glad I was able to reveal it for what it is.