How does your silver look so good?

[weequay]

I have seen a number of recent posts where silver looks lousy when first out of the ground, then the final coin looks great.
I have a few recent silvers that have dark areas that I can't seem to get out.
What do you folks use, and is it ok to do on a potentially valuable coin?

Thanks,

David

 

[Eric in RI]

I clean my silver with tap water and a moist paper towel. As far as the black areas, electrolysis can clean them up pretty good. I wouldnt clean any valuable silver, I only clean my common date silvers. I dont clean any barber coins regardless if they are common dates or not as they fetch a better premium than common mercs or rosies which most silver buyers pay melt value for them.

 

[Big Fang Coin Biter]

Use a soft toothbrush and dish soap to lightly brush off the dirt, under running water. Then if you want to get rid of black tarnish, wet a little baking soda and gently rub the coin between your fingers. This works quickly so go easy or you will have a totally cleaned coin. As Eric said it is your decision as to which coins to do. I would look them up first. A friend of mine had a dime graded that he just brushed lightly under running water and it came back with "cleaned" in the grade.
Hope this helps and HH - BF

 

[dewcon4414]

For those less valued i use BARTENDER FRIENDS just because unlike baking soda it totally desolves. More valued silver.... yes soap and water are good, but i found COIN CARE, which is sold by COIN WORLD and the ANA to be best along with a Q-tip. You really have to be careful with electrolysis on silver it will pit the coin. Unlike copper when the pantene is removed it pits, on silver it pits regardless if left in to long. There are better options... like NULL ALL that you use on mag wheels. I wouldnt recommend anything other than coin care on those silver war nickels... they really loose their natural luster otherwise.... and thats important for coin collectors. Even the use of Q-tips will scarch a silver coin if you rub continuously in on spot. Whizzing a coin of value may make it totally useless to a collector.

Dew

 

[DirtFlipper]

The quick answer is no, it's not ok to clean a potentially valuable coin.

A coin that has been in the dirt will pick up some number of scratches, including microscopic ones. Even just rinsing those and not touching with anything else may be considered 'cleaned' (the grading services examine coins under strong magnifaction, and are really picky). Very hard to get past those guys!

Cleaning coins has been a subject of debate for decades, even among coin collectors (back in the 1920's-1960's, it was somewhat more accepted). But since the 1970's, within numismatics, coin cleaning is frowned upon. But in some cases is unavoidable, and so moves into an area of 'conservation'.

The basic issue is with any sort of rubbing, or certain chemicals, is that it leaves scratches, unnatural toning, etching, or all. So just that quick brief swipe folks like to make when extracting a coin from the ground is a no-no. Hard habit to break though.

Having said that, for silver that comes out of nice black or sandy soil, just rinsing it in running water does most of the work. 'Tapping' or dabbing with a toothbrush can help loosen the dirt in the crevices to get it rinsed out. Some folks stop right there. Soap helps serve as a wetting agent, but if you rub with the toothbrush, it helps to check and make sure no dirt is lodged in the bristles, even the tiniest will leaves scratches. Blot dry with cotton cloth, again no rubbing.

For grey or blackened coins, some folks just leave them alone. Electrolysis may help, and at least doesn't involve rubbing. The baking soda paste technique mentioned above works great, but will make the coins shiny too. This tends to run counter to the circulation grade of the coin, so they end up looking 'cleaned' that way. I've found that melamine foam (aka Magic Eraser) will take the black off, but not create the unnatural shine, so I use that sparingly on coins that only have spot metal value (fortunately though, I tend to get coins in rich black dirt, so that's the exception). It works great on Wheats and IHs though!

There are chemicals one can dip silver coins into and it will also remove the black and make them shiny. Black, beach found silver for example. 'Dip It' I think is one, but I don't have first hand knowledge of results.

Good luck!
DirtFlipper

 

[grumpyolman]

If you check out the posts on some of the other forums that cater specifically to coin collectors, I think you'll come to the conclusion that any cleaning will reduce the nuismatic value of the coin. Those who have found truly highly valued key coins, send them to one of the professional grading services and have them cleaned and slabbed by them. They clean it, authenticate it's not a forgery, evaluate the condition, and put it into a plastic type case with all the pertinent data on it and their assurance that all is correct. Costs a little to do that but if you are lucky enought to hit a coin that's worth a few hundred and you pay $50 to have it slabbed, it'll pay off in the long run. Jim

 

[UtahRich]

The quick answer is no, it's not ok to clean a potentially valuable coin.

Having said that, for silver that comes out of nice black or sandy soil, just rinsing it in running water does most of the work. 'Tapping' or dabbing with a toothbrush can help loosen the dirt in the crevices to get it rinsed out. Some folks stop right there. Soap helps serve as a wetting agent, but if you rub with the toothbrush, it helps to check and make sure no dirt is lodged in the bristles, even the tiniest will leaves scratches. Blot dry with cotton cloth, again no rubbing.

For grey or blackened coins, some folks just leave them alone.

Good luck!
DirtFlipper

Above is what I do.

I get the dirt off and leave it as is with any toning. Just an observation I've made over the years; a lot of the silver coins I have found with my Explorer have little areas of toning on them where they have been up against other metallic garbage.

I sold some of my numismatically valuable coins when I first started detecting yearsssss ago. I keep them now. IMHO a toned area on a silver coin gives it a little charactor and often reminds me of the circumstances of the find.

Rich (Utah)

 

[Hotcz70]

I'm not a collector...nor do I care about selling anything I find. I just like finding stuff.
On some of my silver I use a pinch of baking soda and some warm water...then a light rub between the finger and thumb. it works miracles on my old silver coins. I do not use it on anything but silver though...and I don't ever use it on more valuable coins...and do not recommend that anybody else does either. I have been told that cleaning coins can greatly ruin the value...so again...I do not recommend cleaning them the way I do.