Definition

• Wet-coloring.  The finishing process in which liquids are employed to give medals a patina color or finish. The medallic items are usually abrasive blasted first to give them a surface of microscopic pits, or cups, to accept the liquid. The fluid chemicals can then be applied by immersion, appressed or other methods including flooding the surface with a slurry containing pumice as a first step to oxidize and relieve the medal.  See finishing and finishing.

  excerpted with permission from

  An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

  For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

  COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

  Roger W. Burdette, Editor

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