40 centavos needs cleaning?

Hi,

Your help will be appreciated. This 1907 40 centavos coin is very special to me and is rare. Unfortunaty the surface is very black with low eye appeal. Can this coin be cleaned and how should I proceed? The bottom coin 1908 is how it can look. It is 40% silver.

 

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I believe either NGC or PCGS offers cleaning services.

 

Try acetone first. Otherwise I wouldnt clean it.

 

I am to remote to get the coin to NGC.

 

I doubt it. Most of the world is serviced by Fedex or local affiliates.

Personally, I would leave it alone. I don't mind the look at all. I believe you would lower the value if you tried to clean it yourself without years of experience. I would trust some people on this board to lighten this coin up some without crossing the line to "cleaned", but its a VERY fine line.

 

I live in a mine camp almost 300 km from the nearest town in the middle of the atacama desert. How does the NGC send the coin back? Normal postal service? I can get it there, the return is the problem.

 

Have any relatives living in a city like Santiago?

Btw, cool man. I bet the stars at night are incredible.

 

I am not Chilean. Expat. My wife can send it from the town. How does the return of the coin work? I was looking at that, but not much details.

 

Cool Derick, can you post some photos from your camp. These would be interesting to us far far away folks.

 

In the winter, 3200 m above sea level in the Andes. To be accurate, 0.68 atm pressure and minus 20 oC. Have to be crazy right?

 

Pretty desolate. What are you guys mining for??? gold, silver,copper ????

 

Then you have the summer, driest place on earth.

 

Wow reminds me of the Anaconda mine up in Montana. Copper ???

 

I would guess copper. Chile I believe has the largest copper deposits on earth. Of course, silver, gold, and other "goodies" also comes from copper mines.

 

> 1000,000 tons per year copper

 

I believe normally comes via Fedex or similar. I believe you can arrange to pick it up in the depot as well if your wife could drive to the nearest Fedex facility.

I would call NCS and ask.

Didn't mean to rain on your parade earlier, I was just fearful. Most people who have a special coin and wish to "lighten" it wish they never would have touched it.

 

Its a nice looking coin and if it were mine I'd leave it alone. I like Air Tites so I'd put it in one and admire it.

 

No problem, I will call them. Will be a good thing if I can establish some sort of arrangement. Then I can also have some coins graded in the process. Thanx for the advise.

 

Derick, that is way cool!

 

Thank for posting those pictures, derrick.

From the looks of it you are close to the Cordillera de los Andes? Reminds me a lot of one of the places where my father worked - a sulphur mine perched up 4200 m above sea level, close the to the Bolivian border. Yes, it does not get any lonelier than that.

Regarding you coin, the 1907 is a scarce year with only a few thousand minted, so at this stage I would not touch it. However, acetone does effectively remove organic junk which is soluble in it, and will not damage silver. I said silver, mind you, not copper. I have used it many times on very scarce coins, and if you do it properly, no issue.
You need to use lab grade acetone (dry). Get some experience with low value coins first. Soak the coin in a glass or polyethylene container (about 50 ml will do) and soak for a few hours.

I have soaked some coins in acetone for 24 hours w/o problems. Remove, rinse with new acetone and let dry on its own. Do not at any stage rub or dry with a cloth. The acetone, being more polar than most organic solvents, will only remove matter which is soluble in it. It will not attack the silver. Again, try it first with low value coins, and get some experience.

PS- I hope they pay you well to work where you work!