CLEANING Silver Coins: "Dipping" TARNISHED coins in a Cleaning Bath to RESTORE Coins to SPARKLING!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- My friends at Lighthouse Canada sent me a silver cleaning bath and I am really eager to try it out. A while back I got a 40% Silver US Ike Dollar that is a perfect candidate for "restoration." This Proof Silver Dollar is covered in a white/green haze and has almost no eye appeal, despite being in nearly perfect mint condition. Can we restore the SPARKLE to this Silver Ike?
Conventional wisdom says NEVER CLEAN COINS! But what if they look terrible? Tape residue, gunk, tarnish - there are lots of things that can make a coin look terrible. And a terrible looking coin probably isn't worth much anyhow!
The truth is that lots of reputable dealers, and serious collectors clean coins. Even professional grading companies like NGC and PCGS offer coin cleaning as a service - often referred to as "Restoration."
So why is cleaning coins frowned upon? Well, it's because if you don't know what you're doing, you could very well damage your coins. You need to undestand some of the basics of chemistry and physics. Harsh or reactive chemicals could damage or discolour some metals. Abrasives will scratch.
Today, we'll use the Lighthouse silver cleaning bath to remove the haze and tarnish from a silver Ike.
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Dipping proof coins often takes of the proof finish but I’m not sure of that is actually the case. That coin sure does look a lot better though
I'll see how we do with non-proof coins in a future video. It would be interesting to see the difference.
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing, James!
Thanks for watching!
I dipped all my non numismatic junk 90% silver the other day and couldn't be happier with how they turned out
I would have given a try in ammonia (clear) with plenty of rinse before and after. I agree the coin looks to have been somewhat damaged by that product. MS70 is a bit gentler on silver and alloy. Possibly one issue is that coin is only 0.400 purity.
Thanks for watching and for weighing in!
E-Z-est i have had good success with silver coins and MS70 for proof or UNC coins that need to take the haze off of them... also that film that was on the coin might have eating into the coin a little and now that its dipped instead of seeing a mirror finish your seeing under the mirror finish due to the film eating into it especially if it was PVC damage which is usually a green film
I think you're right. The damage might have already been done on that coin.
A great presentation experiment. Thanks. Coin turned out good. I wonder if the purity has something to do of how well the results yields.
I also wonder if this would have turned out differently if it was 80 or 90%. I have a feeling we'll find out soon!
@@CADRollHunter Looking forward to it.
When I was a kid and started into numismatics, I didn't listen to the experts of course and there was a commercial on TV one day that advertised a cleaning plate for metals. I think it's just an aluminium plate with a bunch of holes punched into it to increase it's surface area. The idea is that you submerge the plate in almost boiling water in a container, add a spoonful of borax I think, and then submerge your metal objects so that they are in contact with the plate. You're essentially performing a reverse chemical plating where the transition series of metals is supposed to case a reaction of the oxygen that is in the silver oxide with the aluminium and form aluminium oxide instead, thus getting rid of the silver oxide. It mostly worked great on silver but not really on copper because it would make them almost a false pink colour. Worked pretty well on nickel coinage too, back when everything else was cupro-nickel or straight nickel.
Interesting - I've never heard of this particular technique. Thanks for sharing that!
Interesting result!
I'll know not to do full-size silver dollars quite this way. Contact with the post left that mark. Best not to have any contact with anything!
I agree with you, you should definitely try dipping in 1 or 2 min increments to make sure you're not leaving the coins in for too long or not long enough. I think this is a great example to show why cleaning coins isn't always a bad idea when you can't see details behind the oxidation!
Thanks for weighing in! I'm completely inexperienced in this, so trial and error is how I'll learn. And there's no real consequence for messing up when the coins come from my junk silver stack!
Microfiber cloth would help.
Nice
I'm not a fan of cleaning coins, but that ike dollar was pretty bad. I have a few brown box ike dollars that have the same surfaces as yours originally did. It did make the coin look a little better, but I myself probably wouldn't use that product.
I'm going to try it again with some other coins (perhaps for less time to start) and see if I get better results.
If a coin has corrosion then a light cleaning may be appropriate. But a rare or high value coin should never be cleaned. It's to easy to damage a coin and kill collector value.
Absolutely!
The environmental damage was extensive. That said I think that cleaner may be a little strong and I wouldn't use it on a coin with greater value that would be better left to a grading company restoration
That makes sense!
I would have used "house hold" products first?
Hi James, I’ve been a dipper for many years . Only P 60 or MS 60 or better. I usually pour a bit in a cup and lay the coin flat with enough solution to cover the coin. I check and rinse about every 30 seconds and have had great results. Three minutes may have allowed the solution to remove the lustrous surface. Still and all it turned an ugly coin into a very nice coin.
I agree it might have been too long in that solution. I'll certainly try again for shorter periods!
maybe try Silvo.
Try a light rub with the microfiber cloth?
If the value is just in the silver, I will clean them up. I’ll start off with just soap and hot water and try to remove as much grime as I can using a medium density sponge and dry with a microfiber cloth. A vinegar solution might be used.
Thanks for sharing your process!
you may have better results with higher silver content coins
You might be right. I'll definitely try some more. I believe the outer part of this coin is 80% silver (like Canadian coins) and the inner core has much more copper to bring it to 40% overall), so I'd expect to get similar results?
@@CADRollHuntera copper core makes cleaning the rim challenging as you can see the copper when coin roll hunting. I've removed the haze with a very mild buffing wheel and compound. Since they're your coins you can do as you please with them.
Where do you find silver cleaner?
I got this from Lighthouse Canada. The link is in the video description, and you can use discount code CRH20 to save 20% at their online store.