Various Silver Coin Cleaning Dips ?

Not always. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But - there is never any way to know beforehand, at least not with any degree of certainty. That's why dipping coins, any dipping of coins, must always be considered a crap shoot.

Questions like the one asked by serafino have come up for as long as I can remember. And every time they do I'm reminded of the same article I read many years ago. It was a story, a report, of something that happened on the bourse of a large coin show. Two dealer friends were talking about a coin that one of then had just purchased at the show. It was scarce date Morgan, in a high grade slab, and he'd paid something like $56,000 for it. But the coin was toned black - and that's what they were discussing, the black toning - or to be more precise IF the coin should be dipped.

You can easily imagine the discussion that took place, the pros, the cons, the risk involved in dipping a $56,000 coin. And it went back and forth and forth and back for some time. But in the end, the owner decided to go ahead and dip it. And that's exactly what he did, right there are the show.

When he was all done, he took the coin straight over the PCGS table and asked for immediate grade, same day grade. And that's what he got by the end of the day. The coin was upgraded 2 full grades. And the following day he put the coin into one of the auctions, it sold for $150,000 plus.

So, there ya have it, a coin that was toned black. But when it was dipped the black was gone and the result was a great looking coin with blooming luster. And results like this are definitely not unknown, it happens far more often that one might think. And of course the opposite happens as well, and some would say even more often. But that's the thing, ya never know, and there's no way you can ever know. All ya can do is roll the dice and take your chances when it comes to dipping coins.

And the same thing doesn't just apply to coins toned back, it applies to all coins, with any kind of toning - ya never know what lurks underneath that toning ! It may turn out to be a gem, it may turn out to be a dog.

serafino, I can't tell you what dip was used because that was never related in the article. All I can tell you is the coin was dipped. But I can tell you that many of the commercial dips are quite effective. And they can all be diluted, to various strengths. But no matter which one you use, the outcome is always going to be dependent on the coin itself. The tricky part, the hard part, is knowing enough about coins and dipping them to make those decisions of which dip to use on which coin, whether or not to dilute it, and most of all - whether or not to dip it all.

I would also tell you that the age of the coin doesn't really matter. It can be 10 years old or 600 years old, but that doesn't tell you anything about how long the coin has been toned. I say that because people have been dipping for over 200 years that I know of. And fully 80% of all older coins have been dipped at least once in their lifetimes. So the toning you see on the coins, well, it might be 600 years old but then it again it might only be 10 years old - or anyplace in between. And with any of them sometimes the toning may have already destroyed all the luster, and sometimes all that luster may still be there lurking under the toning. Ya just never know. But one thing is certain, the only way to find out is to roll the dice - or not