Here is possibly why so many cleaned coins - Page 2

yakpoo · 10-31-2009, 08:23 PM

I like the bottom of the "Brilliantize" ad...

Quote:

We have a very fine offer for you. If you wish, send us a check for $15. We guarantee you will like what we send.

I wonder how that will work in an eBay ad...

DoK U Mint · 10-31-2009, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Just Carl

May sound funny by todays standards but when I was a kid, cleaning coins was common and actually necessary. If you collected coins and showed them to anyone, usually the first thing you would hear is "Those sure are dirty. Why don't you clean them up so they look nice?" And we did. Back then an antique was just something in a museum, not some item you found in change. Coins were supposed to look pretty in your Whitman Folder. Articles like those were seen but no one I knew ever purchased that stuff. Way to expensive for most. Every one I knew that collected coins would use either Lemon Juice, Vinegar but the most common was baking soda and water paste. Rubbing with that really cleaned coins but really didn't make them look new. For a newer look we used to go out to our Dad's car, open the battery and using a turkey baster, take out some of the Acid. When most coins were left in that stuff, they would come out looking like new. That practice was only as good as when your Dad did not see that. If he did, that would stop since you had a really sore rear to remember not to do it again.
All sounds horrible but then back when I was a kid coins such as Standing Liberty Quarters were as common as a State Quarter today. Roosevelt Dimes were just coming out, Walking Liberty Halves were used all the time and even Indian Cents were still in change. We used to play games with all coins by throwing them on sidewalks to see who could get the closest to the lines between the slabs. Coins were for shooting at with your favorite BB gun, throwing across a river, throwing in wishing wells, drilling to make jewlery for some girl, placing on RR tracks and almost anything else possible to do with coins.
And back then even old furniture was just something to break up and use in bon fires, not sell as antiques. And remember a car was only about $400 to $600 too.

Except for the car prices. $40 to $60 would get you a fixer~upper!

desertgem · 11-01-2009, 01:00 AM

Some of the ads for paper money and for the exotics make the old issues so much fun. Q.David Bowers has an ad in it, and his offerings are so diverse. A lot of patterns and rarities. The BU St. Gaudens are $43-48, so I keep using this as a reference.

Wonder if in 50 years, people will read old Coin World issue and wonder how their grandpa could have not save all of those BU IKEs from the bank. Wonder what Ebay will be like

Jim

**GDJMSP** · 11-01-2009, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_h

Now Doug, tell the truth - is that one certain gold coin you post on occasion, and in such fine shape, from your youth? And it must be that because of your grandfather's advice you kept it in original mint condition.

PS - Your grandfather was a smart man.

No Mark, the only coins from my youth, that I managed to keep past my youth, were those same two coins that I polished up so diligently - a 1903 dime and 1910 dime. Those were the birth years of my grandparents and they were given to me by my grandmother in 1960. She had kept them since their marriage. They belong to my son now.

But boy you came close to crossing the line there

Just Carl · 11-01-2009, 11:16 PM

Oddly enough I've still got all the coins I collected from when I was a kid. My first coin was a 1943 Lincoln Cent and I still have that one. I know we distroyed tons of coins but the ones I collected I still have. I think I've stil got a few of the ones we altered but can't find them lately. Old age you know.

Just Carl · 11-02-2009, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jloring

The thing I remember most from the mid 50's (my collecting "prime") other than the baking soda trick Carl mentioned above, was sitting around the lunch table in the school cafeteria, rubbing liquid mercury into "mercury" dimes... talk about "proof-like"!

WOW you know I forgot about that one. Thanks for the reminder. We used to break those thermomters open for the Mercury to do that with. Got caught doing that too and ouch.
And as to age, we should all try to remember that GDJMSP knows so much about coins since he invented them a long, long time ago.

**GDJMSP** · 11-02-2009, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Just Carl

And as to age, we should all try to remember that GDJMSP knows so much about coins since he invented them a long, long time ago.

Only because I got tired of taking sea shells from the older guys like you Carl

Collect89 · 11-02-2009, 03:19 PM

Essentially all the silver "collector coins" on display at shows in the 1960s were bright white. If you had the baking soda concession back then you would be rich today.

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