QUERY: RESTORING LEATHER BOOK COVERS

I recently picked up a nice leatherbound, gilt-edged book for not much more than I would have paid for a regular hard cover version. It's a copy of E.M. Kelly's Spanish Dollars and Silver Tokens that was presented to the governor of the Bank of England. The binding was done by Sangorski and Sutcliffe.

Aside from the faded area where smaller books were pressed against it, the book is pristine. Is there a way to bring the color back? Is there something you can rub in to bring out the original color??

We have a few people in our group who routinely have their rare books re-bound and when new books are published with the option of leather, take that option. I assume these people know how to store their books properly, but with all the effort we've spent on learning the best way to store our coins we have spent little time talking about our books, so I thought it would be a good question to ask.

To prevent the problem in the first place, I warned our members to keep their books out of direct sunlight and if possible, put something against the entire surface so the leather ages evenly.

I'd appreciate any suggestions and answers your group has, and would like to forward them to my coin groups. Thanks!






Wayne Homren, Editor

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