Cleaning/Restoring Medals Pins and Awards

[whitster]

Hi.

I wonder if any experts in this forum can help me. I have a small but growing collection of medals from socialist countries. Some of them are quite old and need cleaning etc. I have been cleaning them with dish detergent and a soft tooth brush with great success. I wonder if it is better to use brasso or something to make them look new again. Is it better for them to look new or old? Won't most cleaners like brasso take off the enamel paint? Also, what about restoring them? Are they better off missing paint and scuffed up or should I paint them new? It appears that most are brass and most are missing some paint. I think I could restore most of them with some kind of enamel paint. This forum seems to be great and I have been reading all posts for a while now. So, I am here seeking the advice of experts since I am really new to this hobby.

Thanks for reading and helping,

WR

 

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[gldhntr]

value wise i would only clean them with soap/water as something like brasso will make them look better but it will diminish the value....same with repainting.......if you were just interested in hanging them up and not worried with value then shine em and paint em.................gldhntr

 

[Floater]

Hey Whitster, the pins and medals sounds like a great collection . Are their any sites online that deal in this type of collecting and if so I would imagine they have some tips for you. I would be very carefull cleaning them and even a detergent soap can do some harm. Dont look for instant gratification ?but rather try the slow road and dillute your soap in lots of water and soak the pins. Then again water may harm some of these too. Cleaning is a tricky subject. As far as painting the ones with enamel I would talk to a collector first . Sometimes the pin could be ruined since most of these finishes while hand painted are then baked on I dont think I would try painting them. We would love to see some before and after pictures though of your cleaning and what you find out.Keep us posted. HH

 

[whitster]

That's an interesting point. ?I wonder if others will disagree. ?It's funny how businesses trying to sell some of the medals and others on ebay that I have, have obviously cleaned and painted them. ?Honestly, even if I do paint them, they will never look like they once did. ?I can't match the color exactly and it would be micro paiting-almost. Is your point a common one? ?I am tending to agree with you. ?Of course, maybe one day I might sell some of them. ?Who knows?

 

[Nana40]

Would love to see pictures of your collection....

Nana

 

[whitster]

Ok, here are some examples. I snapped a couple that I have duplicates of so you can see the differences. Sorry about the quality. I did this really fast. I will do better next time. Any ideas? Most of my medals are brass, I believe. I have hundreds of these of all kinds. Mostly revolutionary stuff.

 

[Floater]

Whitster those are very nice. I would not restore any of the paint on them. Like you said you could never match it. Finding a way to store them is probably the trickiest part so they dont get any more damage from the air. Love to see some titles of what they are too. Thanks.
HH

 

[whitster]

Hi again. Well, it's interesting. The more I look at my medals, the more I realize that almost all of them are in bad shape. Most of these medals arent that old. Maybe 40 years old or so. I know that I have never really seen any in good condition so the guys on ebay etc are definately cleaning and re-painting them. So, short of painting, I think I could carefully clean them better. Soap and water only gets the dirt off. I'd at least like to get them better looking. Is brasso a good choice for these kinds of metals? Any advice. I can do it carefully and go around the paint etc. I don't want to remove any more paint than necessary. By the way, I'm storing them in individual little ziplock bags. I think this is a good way to preserve them. Any ideas? Thoughts?

I'm so happy to have found this forum for my hobby. I hope that someday I can offer insight to something/someone here. You know, I'm from New Orleans. This hobby helps me get my mind off of what's going on here. It's the worst thing that anyone can imagine.

whitster

 

[JakePhelps]

Im pretty sure ziplock bags might help protect them, but if there is chemicals in the bag it may make a green crud build up on the metals. They sell alot of products that are better for storage and easier to view your collection than bags. There is 2x2 coin holders, also there is some different clear binder pages and such, theres flips, etc...

 

[whitster]

I think I'm going to avoid re-painting for now. But, I am interested in light cleaning, I mean more than what I'm doing now. Anyone have any luck with lighter fluid? I read that some are using that. It seems that the rule is that if I want to sell them, I should paint them, otherwise, leave them alone. I say that because the ones that are online and are being sold, are always painted.

 

[JakePhelps]

I would just leave tham as they are, but if you want them shiney brass, then theres something called noxon 7 metal polish that i use and it works well for cleaning only dertain parts. Dont use lighter fluid as it will ruin the remaining paint.

 

[whitster]

Hi again. Just wondering if anyone else has any advice for me. I still haven't painted any. Soap and water gets the dirt off but so far, lighter fluid and wd40 don't do much for the brass ones. It's funny that the ones that look so new and repainted are the ones that sell online on ebay. I wonder if I could sell any in bad condition. I'm not going to sell any, I just want to learn more about this hobby. Cataloging them is fun but tedious. These socialist countries made medals for everything. Most of them aren't listed in any books. So, I'm just translating them and moving on.