Advice Appreciated!!

suggestions anyone?

First off I cant send a photo as at the present my scanner has brain damage. Recently got interested in coins again after a 31 yr. gap. Put all my coins in a bank box in 74. Brought them home for re-evaluation, they all look the same as in 74,except one. It's the dime in a 5 piece 1938 proof set, it has this light colored fuzzy looking growth on it. I hate to bust up a proof set but I'm thinking this could spread to the quarter and the walker which are still pristine. What do you think, should I isolate this dime? Thanks.

 

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I moved this post to the Main Forum because I think it is more likely to be seen by people who can help.

What color is the "fuzzy stuff"? Can you tell whether the metal has been affected, or just covere?

Are the coins in their original mint packaging?

The dime, quarter and half are all "coin silver" (.900 silver/.100 copper) so whatever is affecting the dime could be just as dangerous to the other two.

 

If the coins are in the original packing I would hate to see that cut up...

If it is not I would place the other coins in nice holders and place the dime in one too or even sell the dime and replace it to still have a complete set.

Speedy

 

If the original package is that thin plastic bag like they came in during the 60's then it's not original, it's in a black & clear hard plastic 3 pc.holder about 3/8in.thick with the date embossed in gold color. I got it from what was then called Bower&Ruddy galleries. The color of the growth is light greyish silver.Thanks.

 

I would place the set in a Capital Plastic Holder as well. They make a nice display and keep the coins in mint shape. I hope you have good luck with the dime.

 

Two things....first, safe deposit boxes might be safe from criminals, but they are often not stable as far as humidity is concerned. Collectors should be aware of that.

Second, are you sure it is three dimensional and not just fuzzy looking toning? I would like to think that it is not growing on the coin, so I am just looking for another explanation. But, as the others said, take some action to avoid damaging the others.

BTW – if the set is that old, maybe the coins should be slabbed. Back then they were not quite as advanced (obsessive) at grading, so maybe you will luck out and get some higher end grades.

 

I agree. Slabbing might be an excellent option. Some of the slabbing companies will take steps to preserve your coins before slabbing if it is something that can be easily fixed. A 1938 proof set is certainly worthy of that kind of attention. Silver coins are the easiest to conserve, copper that toughest.

I think that there might have been some mild or maybe harsh cleaning done to the coins before they were packaged in the Capital holder. Probably a fingerprint or ugly stain was removed.

That's one of the biggest problems with cleaning coins, what is it going to look like 30 years from now.

Must be pretty exciting to re-examine a coin collection after 30 years! I have some coins that I lose track of and re-discover them 5 or 10 years later. Lots of fun!

 

Their "set" status could be preserved by having them slabbed in a multi-coin holder. I know NGC has them, and I think PCGS does too.

 

I kind of like that option about conserving, I was'nt aware that it was available, Thanks. Yah it was fun checking them out after 31 yrs. Where I live any kind of crime is rare but I would feel uneasy keeping my coins at home were I could enjoy them. There was 3000+ coins that I regraded,took me five wks.to go thru them but I bought coin grading software and it saved a lot of time. Years ago when I was collecting nobody looked for errors and the top end grades were called B.U.,Choice B.U. and Gem B.U., now I see they have MS 60-70, very good idea,Iwould like to see 2 grades for a coin one for obv. & one for rev, as I've found a lot of coins that have different wear .

 

By the way when I got back into coins a few wks. ago I had a hundred questions, then I found this site and read almost every post, and found that all my questions were posted by other people. Very educational site and I like the lack of bad mouth here, good work.

 

Welcome back to collecting

 

Every now and then you will run across a coin graded that way - more frequently with world coins than U.S. in my experience. I agree with you that it is a much underused convention.

 

I brought home the prf. set home yesterday and did a real close up, the 50 and 25 ct. pieces also are showing the same condition and the 5 ct. is developing a haze. I called NCS and I think I was talking to some one who knows very little about c. conservation,she had to ask someone else and came back with, Yah we do that. Maybe the people that do the work are real good but my initial contact was negative. Are they the only game in town? I just want to send the coin in to be conserved and graded and then pay the fee. It sems they conserve it and then send somewhere else for a grade but only if you join a society, They probably are all in the same building and every thing beyond grading is a way to extract more fees. Thanks.

 

NCS and NGC are sister companies. NCS does the "conserving", and NGC does the grading, and there's just no way around the double whammy. For conservation, if NCS isn't the only game in town, they sure have everyone fooled.

Google produced over 570,000 hits on the subject "coin conservation", but of the first 30 about half were irrelevant, and all but one of the others referred to NCS. The exception was a blog about a museum's in-house conservation efforts on coins recovered from a shipwreck.

 

I gave up on the scanner ,here are camera photos, can you notice the difference when held at different angles? Any clues as to what this fuzzy stuff is?