Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum and, after receiving a batch of walking liberty half dollars, I was prompted to join as I have a few questions. Here is some background: I recently bought a bunch of circulated walking liberty half dollars ("junk silver") from a reputable online bullion dealer. Unfortunately, many of these coins came very rusted. I bought 60 coins, 20 of which had noticeable rust and 7-8 are heavily rusted. I've bought coins from this dealer a number of times, but never received coins that were this bad. I've been purchasing 90% silver coins only for a few years; so, I'm no expert at spotting fakes. I've never seen 90% silver coins with rust like this. Also, I've never cleaned a coin before, but I'm highly considering cleaning the rust of these; it's so bad it actually makes me sneeze. Any thoughts about whether these are genuine, or whether I should clean them? (my camera doesn't pick up the green well, but a lot of the brownish colors in the pictures below are actually dark green)
If you walk around with your nose in the air, it's called "patina". If you are one of the 99%, it's pocket crud. It's the effect of being used (circulated) a lot. Don't polish or remove it - it will ruin any numismatic value. Just enjoy it for what it's been doing - commerce for almost 100 years.
It's not rust, or pocket crud, it's verdigris. You can remove it with a long soak in acetone if you like, but once it's removed you'll find that the coins' surfaces are pitted. I would personally still remove it, as I'd prefer pitted silver to nasty green oxidation.
I hope you didn't pay to much for them. If you bought them cheap then throw them in your pile and watch silver go up (the optimist in me make me say that). If you paid for decent coins and you got that, I would try and get my money back or something.
Oh there might be some verdigris on some of them, but not much and not many. What those coins have on them is a combination of a lot of things. Some of it is plain old dirt & grime. Some of it is toning, and some of it is corrosion. But rust ? No it's not rust. Rust only occurs on ferrous metals like iron and steel.
Correct - verdigris Incorrect - Acetone will NOT REMOVE verdigris. Verdigris is an ionic salt, which are not soluble in organic solvents. Just curious - how did you decide/learn that verdigris can be removed with acetone? I hear this from people often but I cannot figure out this folklore keeps propagating through the internet. My best guess is many people mistakenly call verdigris "PVC" residue - and, of course, PVC plasticizer residue CAN be removed with acetone since it's an organic compound.
Right Doug, it's a combo of gunk and not all verdigris. Rust is a funny term. Generally, I agree with you, it's really a ferrous metal term in origins. However, technically and chemically, it can actually be applied to ANY type of corrosion on metal. In industry I often hear the term "white rust" applied to aluminum/zinc corrosion. Like you, I'm old school with the term, and I tend to reverse it's use to describe ferrous corrosion.
For the OP, I believe these have little numismatic value due to their condition. I'm afraid these coins are basically bullion at this point which explains why a bullion dealer is selling them as such. If you want collector coins, I recommend you buy uncorroded examples as cleaning these are just not worth the time and expense.
Oh gee ! Now I gotta start worrying. It's always time to start worrying when the scientists start agreeing with me
Ah, but Doug you are a scientist also!!! Maybe not a degree type , but similar philosophy. And also you probably have handled more chemicals than most Hope I am not infracted for calling you a scientist.
Agreed, some in various soils metal detecting look close, heavy Iron soil, red Pacific northwest etc.
