Damaged Proofs HELP

There is no way anything I did srcatched the coins. When I rubbed my finger on it, it was only to stir the oils off. It was very gentle and my hands we wet with the stuff so it couldn't of scratched it. Also these were the coins for $36 that I mentioned in the other post.

 

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Wrong my friend. Look at your coin with a loupe and observe the hairline scratches you caused with your finger and the old T-shirt.

I sure hope that you didn't think my recommendation of pure acetone was really a recommendation for any old cleaning chemicals that might be lying around the house, 'cause I definitely won't accept any blame for whatever happened to your coin!

 

Ok, I am wrong on one bit, mintage is 35,000.

Now since I opened a can of worms, I might as well blow it up:





Now that's ugly isn't it.

 

I think it was eaten at one time.

 

i've actually heard of people swallowing coins! i wonder if they spned them afterwards?:goofer:

 

what about those special clothes you can get for wiping cd's and camera lenses. Would they be harmful for wiping away fingerprints?

 

With all due respect, you should listen to those here with experience. There is no way that turpentine, light rubbing, and an old t shirt can be used on a coin without lasting effect.

You bought impaired proof coins. They will never be the same as undamaged ones. If you were looking for collectable coins, those were the wrong ones to buy.

 

Well, either way, they are now worth 5x as much as they would be uncleaned. There's no argument there.

And now the argument continue.

 

A cleaned coin is worth about 50% or less of the normal value---I would say that you might get what you put into the coins if you sold them again---but then again--you might just should spend them.

Speedy

 

Yes, that is true in most cases. But in this, it just isn't. The coins were sticky, grimy, and fingerprinted. Now they are shiny, brillient, and unless you use a microscope to detect scatches from a gentle brush from a wet hand, they are virtually scrachless. If I hadn't cleaned them I would be lucky to get $5 for the 2001-s, now I will be able to get $45-$60.

 

That kind of brilliance screams to a knowledgeable collelctor.

BTW, just to satisfy my curiosity, why do you ask for advice, when you consider the recommendations of experienced collectors not to be worth serious consideration?

 

Well, I was, untill I found out we had just finished out the acetone cleaning brushes. And the brilliance is the same as all proofs, the turpentine didn't change it, just got everything off of it. Maybe someone's a little jealous a novice was able to discover an encellent way to clean proofs?

 

Invest in a 10x loupe. You'll be amazed on what you see. No one's jealous. Overly shiney coins scream "cleaned". If you have these coins slabbed by a third party grader, they WILL know these coins were cleaned. The only way go sell these coins would be to put them back on E-bay, and "play dumb".
Imagine what will happen if you put these turpentined coins in slabs and wait a few months. Time will tell.

 

Please Hamman88, post pictures of the cleaned coins. That will help the rest of us understand what you are looking at. I understand that a close up may show things that you would not see with the naked eye but I am dieing to see the end result as I am sure other are as well.

 

Sorry but appearently you are demonstrating the biggest sign of ignorance. If your method of cleaning is so 100% efficient, your idea would be in the conservation department but it isn't ever since coins were invented.

If you think your fingers wouldn't damage silver coins, think twice. If you know Mohs' scale, that's great. Calc is at 1 and diamond, we should all know is the hardest is at 10. Fingernails have Mohs hardness scale of 3, pure silver at 2.5. Wow, fingernail CAN scratch silver coins!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yes, you can scratch PURE silver coins) Now you know why silver is usually alloyed. To top it up, it can be possible that under your fingernail that you have traces of quartz, i.e. sand traces etc, and hardness of quartz is around 6-7. Ouch.

Turpentine is NEVER a good idea as it's a product from pine trees or maded from dilstilled petroleum if I'm not mistaken. It is under a group of hydrocarbons and that's like pouring gasoline on your coins. YOU KNOW IT SMELLS! Primary use of turpentine is a paint stripper so it's obviously not recommanded to use turpentine on coins.

On the other hand, acetone is not a hydrocarbon group but proponal group. BIG difference there.

Finally, please kindly explain how any of your methods are NOT going to hurt proof coins. Remember, all you need is a tiny grain of quartz to ruin your coins or a wrong type of chemical to ruin them forever.

 

Sorry, but propanal and acetone are two different chemicals, and there is no such thing as a "propanal group" (wow, I sound like Roy!). Being a PhD chemist, I just can't let that go... and as far as hydrocarbons go, as long as they're pure, "small" molecules (pentane, hexane, heptane), they will evaporate without leaving anything behind.

 

Thank you AgCollector. BTW I love Chemestry, It is known as the hardest class at my school (tough teacher) and a recieved an "A" in the honors class.

 

New coins should be overly shinny if they have a mirror finish.?.

I have no doubt that hamman88 did damage using turpentine, fingers, and a cotton shirt. I believe that he cannot see it with his naked eye. (As a result of this thread I am getting a loupe as I know now I really should look at a coin under magnification.) My camera helps me get there but it is not practical just for general observation. I also believe that a month from now those coins could and probably will look really bad even compared to the greasy fingerprints that were removed. I would agree that he may want to sell them with the comment that he does not know the complete history of the coins. It's not a lie and it gives the seller fair warning. The other side of that is he may want to keep them to see what happens to them and just spend them if they go south. The cost is not significant and the lesson would be a good one to learn - And I don't mean that in a negative way.

So far I haven't heard Hamman88 blame anyone for anything that has transpired. I think everyone has made it pretty clear that the method he choose was not a good one. No matter how nice they look now, I am sure in his heart he believes that damage was done at some level even if the coins look much better that they did. And I'm sure he will not be surprised if a month from now the coins start to show unattractive coloring / spotting / tarnishing. If that happens, I hope we have pictures of how they look now and pictures of how they turn.

I understand why no one said to do this, then do this, and have the end result be something they get blamed for. I'm sure it has happened exactly that way before with probably more at stake. Roy was nice enough to step in and say don't listen to bad advice from someone who doesn't know better and offer advice for the best chance at minimal damage. Now I just hope those of us that are reading this thread that have little to no experience, can take something positive from it. Photos would help achieve that both now and a couple months from now. Don't get me wrong, even if they look good in the future I would not use the same technique hamman88 used. It would just be good to see how the coins have been affected.

 

Man, I cant believe it. Thats why experienced coin collectors will tell a new collector to read and educate yourself before you buy any coins. That will, in turn, avoid these types of situations in your life. Just because you cant see the scratches without a loupe doesnt mean they arent there. Touching or , God forbid, rubbing a coins surface with anything will affect its surface. If it arrived at my house through an Ebay purchase...it would be going back very directly, fingerprints and all. I am also amazed that new collectors refuse to take the advise of very experienced collectors. :rolling: