cleaning coins

I used to keep a covered beaker of acetone to throw packing peanuts into.

 

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GDJMSP, everybody with a brain knows that a coin has a collector value according to its grade and that doing anything that intentionally alters the qualities of that coin that are responsible for that grade and value ist verboten. That, my friend, is a no-brainer. That said, I think the discussion that has been going on here has veered off-course somewhat from the original post asking about how to clean old dirty beaten-up coins to be made into jewelry, and into the realm of how to alter coins that are too gunked up to be salable and make them look better than they did, but with a lesser value than they had. The goal of that, of course, is for the dealer to be able to sell something that no-one has wanted to pay that much for because it looked like crap. I think there are two definitive ways to look at this issue. If you are a true collector or numismatist, maybe even a purist, you stand by the rule of protecting the inherent value of your coin collection and never, ever clean them. But if you are not, and the coin 'collection' is just personal eye candy, for which you do not care about the inherent value, then I say it is entirely fair game to go ahead and clean your coins in any way you can that makes them look better without dimensionally damaging them in some way (scratching, corroding, etc.). My own collection has never been cleaned, but I will be the first to admit that the older and more patinaed they become with age, the less I enjoy their appearance, for the simple reason that this is not the bright, shiny appearance they had when they were made. Matter of personal choice, I'd say. (For the record, my collection is not for investment, just for my own personal satisfaction...to me it will never be worth more than the bullion value of the silver coins and the face value of the rest, and I have no gold, platinum or other precious metal coins.)

 

Unfortunately, there's an overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest otherwise. The sad fact is, sir, that a vast majority of people know nor care about coins in the collectible sense, but simply assume that "shiny is good". If you've ever purchased from the general public, then you surely have experienced the endless "pleasure" of being shown someone's recently found or inherited collection, freshly scrubbed to make them all "nice and purty". Such people are not brainless or stupid, but simply ignorant of expectations, which just happen to be the opposite of what is more familiar to them. Silverware is supposed to be polished, so why not coins?

 

I used coffee cans, thinking I would save the plastics and use it for molding or painting or something. Never happened though, I had to move and lost the garage that was my workshop. The video shows how easy it would be to recycle styrofoam, and all polystyrene objects rather than sending them to landfills.

 

I always had good intentions to paint something with the solution I had made, but I never did.

 

Actually what is common sense for one person is not necessarily common sense for another. I met a guy recently in a thrift shop and got to talking about coins and he pulled out a walking liberty half that he had polished until it was a mirror. He was happy with it, and it could possibly be classified as jewelry since he enjoyed carrying it and showing it off. From a collection point of view, the coin was worthless of course. BTW, the OP (original poster) who wanted to know about cleaning for jewelry making was last seen in May. Apparently she got her answers and is gone. Threads here have a tendency to take on a life of their own.

 

Is there a patient coin collector who could tell me how to remove un unsightly, blotchy staining on an old hammered silver coin that I have? I don't believe it can be verdigris, as there's no green colouring at all. Is this 'bronze disease', or has the coin, a recent metal detectorists find, been in contact with some ferrous material for hundreds of years. Could some other 'acid' have stained the coin?
More importantly, what may remove it; I've tried acetone and 'Verdi-Care', with no success. It looks very much like a smoothish rust.

Any help or advice would be most helpful; thanks in advance.

 

Yes GDJMSP, I understand what you say, my coin in my opinion, is most unsightly with this brown patchy staining covering some part of both sides of the coin. I would like to remove this without doing any significant damage to the coin. Can you advise me of some (all) of the best ways to try to achieve this, as I've said, both 'Verdi-Care' and acetone have done nothing! The horrible brown patches greatly detract from a coins appearance, which I would think, is basically in a sound Very Fine condition. What could have caused this staining, bearing in mind that its probably been in the ground for over 1300 years.
Anyone with knowledge about the cleaning of silver hammered coins, PLEASE HELP. Look forward to anybody any the knowledge, to assist me.
THANKS IN ADVANCE.

 

Start your own thread about cleaning silver hammered coins. Do it in the Ancient Coin forum.

 

Beauty and worth are definitely in the eye of the beholder. Yeah, I have a tendency not to look for the date of a post in a forum, the ongoing comments have a value (and a life) all their own..