Toothpaste on Silver?

Is it appropriate to use toothpaste to clean old silver coins?

 

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Do you want scratches on your coins? Thers is some very abrasive material in toothpaste.

 

Simple answer is no, as has been stated above it does contain material that will mark the coin. Can I ask why you want to clean the coin as this will lower the value, unless of course it is hevely encrusted as one gets on Roman coins?

 

why do your morgans have dirty teeth

 

pure distilled water and lemon juice soaks are the best for cleaning ancient silver. If its particularly high quality, acetone works well. (You see, if its not high quality, then the acetone might remove more of material than you want...)

 

Thanks Ricky ... I just spit eggnog on my computer. Great answer

 

Only if they are in your mouth.

 

Howdy,

Toothpaste is very abrasive - it contains pumice which is lava rock. Indeed, it's like using a pencil eraser on them.

I'd follow the suggestions of the others with lemon juice and possibly acetone.

And I'd go easy and slowly and gently.

peace,

rono

 

Yes, it's a very good idea... NOT!

 

Howdy,

That'll teach me to quote another poster. ;-)

I've used CoinSolve on a few coins, but have heard that if you're careful and double rinse, acetone is good.

Lemon juice sounds less harsh than acetone, but if I was going to try it, I'd start with a diluted solution and see how it works before using straight juice. I'd also start on a coin that didn't matter.

I'm sort of a purist when it comes to cleaning coins and normally would prefer to leave them alone. At the same time, I don't have a problem with wanting to preserve them before you put them into an album - sort of like giving the grandson a bath before putting him to bed.

In my case, this goes back to when I was about 10 and just starting out collecting pennies. I had found a 1922 lincoln with a very faint shadow of a D that I decided to remove with a jackknife. Or those indian heads I thought looked better after scrubbing them with a pencil eraser.

The memory lasts.


peace,

rono

 

HaHa I did the eraser thing to my Morgan dollar dollar when I was 12.

 

Instead of possibly lowering the value or ruining your coins by cleaning them, why not leave them alone with their present value still intact and trade them/ sell them and then get the coins you are "looking" to possess.

 

I seem to have misunderstood the meaning of "cleaning" here. I meant to imply that lemon juice should be used for truly *dirty* coins. I'm not talking about dark tonight or a bit of dust, I', talking of caked on mud or encrustations. And you're just not going to see that kinda stuff on your average Morgan dollar. (and if you do, its probably a junk coin anyway!)

 

Gotcha Ardatirion,

A whole differnt ball game with something that's been in the ground for centuries. I think Luc was talking much more modern here.

clembo

 

Not true. Not all toothpastes are equal. Some are and some are not abrasive. Some are very, very mild and contain NO abrasive substances. Some contain mild acids, caustic materials, coloring agents, etc. Every brand is different. And you will never know exactly what or how much is in any particular brand. That is proprietary and not ment for the general public and a item so that others can not copy thier formulae. Some toothpaste would have little to no effect on a coin. Others would ruin them.
Lemon Juice is also not a good idea. Again, every manufacturer of even Lemon Juice is slightly different for basically the same reasons. Also, any ACID will take off something from the coins and if a substance that is there due to a chemical reaction, then some of the metal goes with it.
naturally the summation is DON'T CLEAN COINS.

 

Hi Carl,

Thanks for the clarification. It doesn't surprise me that there are some mild toothpastes that don't contain pumice.

I agree that folks shouldn't clean coins and I don't with mine. I have used CoinSolver on some before I put them into albums, but just for preservation purposes and not for cleaning.

Problem is that some folks do clean them, or want to, or have some old nasty rascals that they dug out of the ground. So they're going to ask about this, that or the other and that makes threads like this valuable.

again, thanks for the clarification,

rono

 

Carl, you remind me of an old sitcom. The guy wouldn't say much, but when he did.... Was very profound and precise. Thank you for that. I for one look forward to your post.

Wish I could remember the name of the show.. I recall a statue of a man bent over thinking. Dang.. I hate it when this happens.. They say the first thing to go is the memory.

 

The statue was called the "Thinker". It helped Doby solve many of his problems.