I just bought a 1oz Egelhard bar from local shop today, it had some tarnish and looked rather unattractive (in my opinion). I used some silver polish on it and cleaned it up like a mirror. Is this looked down upon in bullion ? Or does nobody really care? Now if this were coin collecting I know you're never supposed to clean an old coin no matter what it looks like. I figured for bullion its just a shiny piece of metal so who cares right? What are your opinions?
Only to the extent that by cleaning you removed som metal. It was only a tiny bit though. I don't think anyone should care what bars look like, except for maybe collectible ones like from the USS Central America.
I don't think it will matter in this case, but cleaning silver bars or coins is a bad habit to get into.
I disagree with the some of the statements made here. There are many silver bars that are collectible. Cleaning the bar doesn't hurt the bullion value, but any collector value it might have is lost. Now, I don't know anything about collectible bars...and based on the picture this one seems pretty plain to me. But, I wouldn't get into the habit of cleaning silver bars.
I was talking about an ingot kind of bar, like an APMEX or something, there are many collectible bars out there which should not be cleaned.
It looks good but how does it look in your hand? How does the other side look? I don't clean anything unless I am absolutely certain that nobody will be able to tell the difference. just my 2 cnts.
the other side was actually flawless in terms of tarnish so i did nothing to it. as for how it looks in my hand its like a minature mirror. i guess it helps that i have experience restoring things, i do automotive detailing/polishing/scratch removal. yes a very very tiny layer of clear coat may come off like on a car for example, but it looks brand new afters. i'm sure the same applys here, but the amount removed is almost negligible.
It shouldn't affect the bullion value but when you go to sell it, they'll say it's been cleaned and try to give you a slightly lower price.
I'm not sure that the cleaning standard that applies to numismatic coins applies to silver art bars. I wouldn't say that the collector value is lost by cleaning when it comes to bars. Are there any bar collectors here to comment?
This is just my take on this but I do not think that cleaning a silver art bar will hurt te rarity value of that particular silver art. I do not mind some toning on a silver art bar to a certain point but if that art bar is toned to the point that it looks black, then I will take it to one of the area dealers to get it cleaned. I have had a few silver art bar cleaned (dipped) in the past because I do not like too much toning to the point where they look dark. Silver art bars are not graded like numismatic coins are and cleaning a silver art bar, in my opnion, will not have the same kind of negative effect on its ebay value like cleaning a numismatic coin. I also do not think that toning on a silver art bar have have any kind of boost on the value of it on ebay. It comes down to how much toning that a person can tolarate on a silver art bar. Some like toning a lot and some people (like me) prefer nice and shiny with little or no toning.
