I like Cleaned Coins and you should to thread

No you never want to do that ! You never want to wipe or even touch the surface of the coin with anything.

Read this thread Amanda - http://www.cointalk.com/t193708-5/

 

Any hardware store will carry it, any paint store will, or places like Home Depot and Lowes.

 

Well unless you just bought it, no. And if you did just buy it, no. Why ? Because you don't know how. And I certainly hope you did not just buy it. I don't even think I'd buy one of those unless it was slabbed.

All of that said, yes I do believe that coin would probably benefit greatly from being dipped by somebody who knew what they were doing. And that coin is no more BU than I am.

 

Hopefully you're joking.

While I am 100% certain that copper can be dipped with nobody being the wiser, most people will disagree and say that it can't be done. I will say that it is not easy.

 

Sometimes you don't. The coin you linked to, why would anybody even want to clean it ? I see no dirt and grime on it, I see nothing on it but what looks like natural toning. That coin looks exactly as it should look for a copper coin of that age and that wear.

 

Yes, in a way I am condoning it I suppose. But more than anything I am merely stating that it can be done, which is contrary to what most people believe. But it is something that is definitely not easy to do.

Well, that's really a matter of taste. Exactly how do you define dark, objectionable toning on copper ? It's really a chocolate and vanilla thing, some like chocolate and some like vanilla. In most cases I would recommend doing absolutely nothing.

Can a copper coin be dipped and dipped effectively ? Yes, absolutely. But not every copper coin can be dipped effectively. For one thing the coin has to be MS for no copper coin that has wear on it is going to remain original mint red. So to see a copper coin that has wear on it, and that is original mint red, is a dead give-away that the coin has been dipped. And most people will frown on that and not find the coin to be acceptable.

You have to understand, the only reason that you can dip a silver coin and have that coin be acceptable is because you cannot tell with certainty that the coin has been dipped. Even with an electron microscope you cannot tell.

By the same token anybody that knows coins knows for a fact that if you see an older silver coin and that coin has no toning whatsoever on it, then you know for a fact that that coin has been dipped. That is because all coins begin to tone the very moment after they are struck. This is an absolute certainty and there are no exceptions. The reason there are no exceptions is because there is no such thing as an airtight coin holder. And if the air can get to a coin, that coin will tone - period. However, in the very beginning stages of toning the toning is so slight that hardly anybody can see it.

It's kind of like the color white. If your wife tells to go and get some white paint and paint the ceiling, when you get to the store you soon find out there are forty eleven different shades of white paint. But every single one of them is white. Same thing with toning. You can look at 100 different blast white coins individually and you'll say that every one of them has no toning. But put all 100 of them side by side with one another and you'll see a myriad of different colors. You will see the coins are most definitely toned. They are not blast white.

With copper, because copper is the most reactive of our coinage metals (excepting the modern manganese coins), it is even worse. It is all but impossible even with the best coin holders and the best storage conditions to keep copper from toning. You can take any copper coin you want that has been designated as Red by NGC or PCGS and put it beside a freshly minted copper coin and you will absolutely see a color difference - every single time. That is because the Red coin has toned to some degree. Even the definition of Red allows for this, acknowledges this. For the definition of Red dictates that the coin must be 95% or more original mint red. That's means that the coin can be 5% toned, because it WILL be toned. There is no such thing as a 100% original mint red copper coin that is more than a week old.

Once you know this and admit it to yourself, and accept it as fact, then it becomes all but impossible for there to be as many (and there are thousands and thousands of them) older Red copper coins as there - unless at least many of those coins were dipped. And dipped effectively.

 

Yeah, a whole lot of experimentation. What is required is getting the dip to just the perfect strength. Not easy to do because every coin is different, every one is unique. So no matter how good you get, there is still a rather large element of luck involved.