I'm wanting to dip some of my Washington quarters in my dansco that has ugly toning and wanted to dip them blast white. What do you suggest. Ezest or ms70? What techniques do you use?
Silver or clad ones? Edit: I've used MS 70 on both never tried Ezest on a clad though. MS 70 is a "gentler" method for lack of a better word. It won't get anything really nasty off but it's pretty successful removing a good amount of things. I don't see the harm in trying MS 70 first and then seeing which ones you think need something stronger
Baseball is posing an important distinction. You NEVER want EZest to touch the copper edge of a clad coin as it will turn it an unnatural PINK. Since you only get to dip a coin a certain # of times before you change it, unless they are really bad or if it is something you can easily remove any time (like before you sell it) leave them alone. Let's see a photo of one just turning and your most ugly specimen.
Nothing good has ever been reported on using EZest (acid-thiourea dip) on clad coins. If they are silver, no problem with EZest, as long as they are mint state and you are VERY careful. In general, I recommend you dilute EZest 50% with distilled water to help prevent over-dipping. Dip for a 3-4 seconds, then rinse VERY well with distilled water. Repeat if necessary but keep in mind that if you over-dip trying to remove a persistent spot or two, you'll probably kill the coin.
I use diluted ezest on clad ikes and the rims don't turn pink like dipping a lincoln. They look "minty fresh"
Ezest works well for me on clad and silver. If the coins have few hairlines and scratches, they will come out blast white via Ezest. But hairlines are emphasized if they were prior present. Gary in Washington
You won't get relevant results unless your junk silver is Mint State (never dip circulated coins). You only get a certain number of seconds in dip before the coin is ruined forever. No two coins will tolerate the same total length of dip. It's cumulative over the life of a coin, and you don't get to know if the coin had ever been dipped before. Much "dark" toning is too thick to remove without killing the coin. And you don't know if you've overdone it until after the damage is done. If you still want to dip - I'm trying to scare you away from it, for the record - I'll teach you how tonight after work. MS70 does nothing for toning.
As a reminder - MS70 is not a "dip" it is a mild agent (diluted caustic soda) that is designed to release whatever crud is sticking to the coin by making it more soluble. It's meant to be used as a gunk remover. And I suggest doing it sparingly. I still think dipping the coins ruins them, and it can be detected by the grading companies pretty easily. Excessive use of it will in fact get you a "details" grade and ruin the coin. I experimented on several AU/MS Peace Dollars I sent in last year and had some that were just beyond help without a bit of cleaning. Out of the 7 I used MS70 on, 6 came back with details grades (which they would have anyways - since they all had foreign debris on them). The only one that passed was an MS62 - and I only used it to remove one small spot of gunk. So if you are just cleaning up your coins to look nice in the album - so be it - at least for the 90% silver coins, you should be ok - but it's not a dip. Instructions say to use a q-tip (cotton top for sure). Douse the affected area with the q-tip, let it sit for a minute and wipe it off. Then rinse the coin - I recommend cold distilled water, and don't rub it whatever you do!
Personally, I don't think there is anything you can use to remove ugly toning on a Dansco, but I would suggest that you remove the quarters, first. J/K! Chris
I was just meaning I have a lot of junk silver to see how the coins react to the chemical. The coins in my dansco are AU+ MS coins, I'll add some pictures later to show what I'm trying to get rid of.
Yeah, please do. We can throw it back and forth and see if we think it's a wise choice. I am unlikely to think so, to be honest, but I'll offer the pros and cons fairly. The trouble with dipping circulated coins is, they come out looking far too "clean" for the wear. Ever left a circulated coin in your pocket through the washing machine? Like that, only brighter. You'd have to pocket-piece it down ten grade points to remove the obviously-cleaned look. Dip (I'm using the term exclusively for thiourea here) literally strips a layer of metal off the surface, gone forever. Once you've stripped enough metal off to remove the microscopic irregularities which form "luster," the coin will never be lustrous again. Still bright, but "dead" looking, almost matte/satin.
I would suggest just trading them for ones you like better. Junk silver is junk silver regardless of what it looks like. Dipped looks really weird on anything below high AU. If you just want to experiment with it though to get better at the process by all means go ahead
Here's my 1932 I have a few more pics but it won't let me upload anymore. I'll try the rest later. This one is the worst.
