I always thought if a coin had ugly , unsightly toning it was better to dip it. I think the problem lies with over dipping or doing it wrong. Any ideas would be appreciated. Also how many dipped coins are presently in PCGS ,NGC, etc. slabs? rzage
1) Yup, better to dip ugly coins than suffer. Just be careful out there. and: 2) How many are slabbed & dipped? Most of them.
Some coins, even ugly/unsightly ones look as bad or worse after a dipping. The spots/stains/toning doesn't always come off. And sometimes there is discoloration or stains remaining from where the toning was etched into the surfaces. There are countless coins in TPG holders, some of them easy to detect, and others much more difficult.
Cleaning tips: Whatever methods you want to use to clean coins you should test first on low value coins. Chemical reactions w/ silver are complicated and some treatments require neutralization to stop the chemical reactions. Toning hides hairlines and other undesirable blemishes. Removing it may yield some very unpleasant results. If you must clean, there are good books on the market. If you acquire quality coins, they will not need to be cleaned. I think that this is the proper approach.Read the book. An excellent book (I think) is "COIN CHEMISTRY" by Weimar White. It has articles from Gobrecht Journals, The Numismatist, COINage, and Coin World.Topics include toning, preservation, storage and cleaning and more. If you are of a more technical mindset, try "CLEANING AND PRESERVATION OF COINS AND MEDALS" available from Sanford J Durst,numismatic publications.
If you don't like them, rather than spending additional money to have them conserved (and not knowing in advance how they will turn out), I'd just sell them, instead.
An old saying is to let sleeping dogs lie. In other words don't play around cleaning or dipping a coin unless you know what your doing or just don't care about that coins future. As to the statement of placing any coin in tap type water or rinsing with it. Never do that. Tap water is different almost anywhere on Earth. In large city areas that water is treated with chemicals such as Clorine or even Florine. In many homes there is a water softener. This means the water runs through NaCl granules. Not good for any metals such as coins. If for some reason you really want to dip or clean any coins remember that you may well louse up that coin making it worthless. And when someone you don't know tells you of some fantastic method that will do great cleanings on your coins, remember they are your coins. If what they say fails, they can just say, Ooops, to bad, sorry. However, they are still your coins.
I was looking at a 1835 Bust half dollar today at an antique shop. It is XF or F and has nice details. But it is as black as the ace of spades. They only want $70 for it. I was thinking it's a good candidate for a dip. Picked it up and looked at it 10 times, then put it back. Walked around and returned to look again. Left without it. I know I would not be happy with that ugly black. But who knows what crud or corrosion is under the blackness? Very very tempting to just buy it and dip it.
If you're going to dip coins, I recommend buying a dozen or two pieces of junk silver and practice dipping those before attacking anything worth something.
I stand corrected. Tap water is not good.., rinsing should be done with distilled (pure) water... Bone Head
To DIP or NOT TO DIP????? Generally I would not recommend dipping any coin that will be resold. If you would consider dipping the coin it should only be on MS-60 or better. Care must be observed with MS coins to not remove much luster as this will also reduce its value. If you are having problems identifying luster DO NOT DIP it until you do. As dipping on any coin less than MS would give this coin an unusual appearance, thus reduce the value of this coin. But should make it shiny if done correctly. When dipping a coin great care must be exercised so not to over dip, which is easy to do and usually done with the thought "just one more dip".:desk: The comment, only dip coins of the same type and lesser value before you attempt to dip valuable coins is very true if you are to be successful.
P.S. for DIP or NOT DIP A new article in "COIN WORLD" (Mailed April 14) Titled 'Silver-cleaning techniques', will add new fuel to this red hot issue. It's by Suzan L. Maltby, on page 22. Includes an OLD FASHIONED method called GALVANIC cleaning....On & ON & ON...
The now many pamphlets, books, magazines about coins reminds me of way back when my son was born and my wife ran out and purchased all kinds of such things on how to raise a child. The pediotrician, baby doctor, not sure if spelled right, told her that many of those are written by people that never had a child, but just write books on anything to make money. Most are just garbage and are not based on anything except guesswork and if inacurrate, so what, they sell anyway.
