Before and After Cleaning

I hope it wasn't the guy that has this "error" up for sale...



He also has his PVC damaged coins up as having a "nice green toning"

 

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Did you guys even look at the coins? They have no scratches, except for the gash marks that were always there

 

For about three milliseconds, which is all it takes for an educated numismatist to see they were harshly cleaned. Admittedly, they were useless to begin with, but what exactly has learning how to destroy a coin done for your numismatic career?

I don't care what you do to your coins. I can't care; they're not mine. What I can do is ensure that others reading this thread understand what you've done is unworthy of anyone calling themselves a "collector." You've drawn no distinction between the coins you started with and any other coin, and I'm optimistically hoping you assumed that anyone reading would know that whatever you're advocating shouldn't be done to any coin with actual intrinsic value.

But not everyone already knows this, and you're doing great harm by proceeding this way.

 

Your pictures don't have enough detail to show the scratches. Baking soda creates millions of microscratches on the surface of the coin. You need to take a much closer picture with proper lighting to see the scratches.

 

I would think that the baking soda chemically reacts with any acids on the coin. That may clean them but can also lead to all kinds of potential damage.

 

Hahaha this went south quick.

Happy Friday everyone!!!

 

The OP is now officially a heretic in the religion of coin cleaning.

 

...You make sure you let the Third Party Graders know that.
They will absolutely believe you.. NOT

 

you can tell easily that they have been cleaned. sorry, but it's true.

 

Does it have any cartwheel luster remaining?

Here's one of your after pics again that I'm referencing - it's hard to tell with the plastic over it. The photo quality itself looks good with what I think is a pretty good camera; but the angle, distance, and plastic make it hard for me to see the coin's surface details clearly.

Anyway, did you use... distilled water and/or acetone and/or xylene and/or toluene? I'd probably resort to those and stop to keep the toning / tarnish.

If not, did you use dip?

EDIT: Never mind, I finally found your post where you say it lol.

 

@Camreno
A quote from a webpage against using Baking Soda on coins
" it can completely strip away the original patina and obliterate the value of the coin." closed quote

Your Coin Dealer is not that smart

 

I'm not stupid enough to do this to expensive coins, merely really dirty coins that have not much value over their silver melt price.

 

It's my iphone lol, I did use distilled water yes.

 

camreno, these are the types of coins that you can experiment on and learn. there is nothing wrong with that.

I dip junk Morgans to learn how to do it properly, and I am learning things every day that I do this.

 

Wow, that's a pretty good photo quality. I use a designated camera (Lumix w/ a Leica lens) and I can't get photos to zoom-in and maintain its sharpness!

 

Defiantly not sending these in for grading lol.

 

Here is my horror story.. I sent a pretty good looking 1863 Silver German Taler thinking it would get an ok grade. It was labeled as Extreme Hairline Scratches. Seems like it was cleaned before I owned the coin. I only know Error Coin attribution but grading is not my thing. If it looks good I can't find the problem but the experts can!
They will look very closely!

 

"You Took The Words Right Outta' My Mouth".

 

Perhaps I missed it, but did the OP admit to using baking soda or was that just mentioned by some other poster? I would guess possibly lemon juice which is widely used in ancient coins for cleaning silver coins.

 

But of course none of us would have guessed baking soda as none of us would ever think of using it. Good thing there was not a prize for the right answer, I would have been ashamed to collect on it.