New Quiz, No tricks, No twists, No challenge, No fun.

What do you think happened to this coin with white, baking soda residue remaining trapped inside the recess of the letters after it was cleaned?

 

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That’s what is left when you put compound on a buffing wheel. The compound never comes out of the crevices...... Except that coin doesn’t appear buffed at all.

 

I agree. In this case it was soda as it dissolved away in seconds under tap water.

 

Shiny surfaces under the baking powder.

Did I win?

Z

 

Is that bad?

 

corrosive etching of the surface

 

It was rinsed with something other than water, maybe?. Something acidic perhaps, like vinegar, and the baking soda turned into a salt and stuck.

 

ZoidMeister, posted: "Shiny surfaces under the baking powder."

No.

"Did I win?"

No. Now, there are no winners, no tricks , and no thinking is involved. The new format for my quizzes has been suggested by a long time knowledgeable member. The answer is already given in the post so no one feels that I'm trying to show how much I know compared to them .

 

It came back from the TPG as ‘Details - Cleaned’,

and the novice collector was upset with him/her self for spending so much money on the coin, and wasting more money to have it graded. And if the collector was the one that cleaned it, he was even more upset with him/her self.

 

Warning:

Well, then I demand a 'participation trophy' . . .

Just my

Z

 

You funny guy...


I would assume (sometimes not good) that the surface was covered in small hairlines.

 

While I realize that you're being intentionally sarcastic, @Insider , this could have been a fantastic quiz. Post the picture and ask people to describe what they see and what the problem is.

To longtime collectors, this is a fairly straightforward problem (my eyes were drawn to the picture before I read your post, and knew what it was instantly). But, I suspect many here may have struggled to correctly identify the issue.

I think there's a place for the difficult level quizzes such as the edge-view one (which received a bit of backlash, rightly or wrongly. That thread wasn't managed properly, and some people reacted poorly to it). That thread could have been handled better, and I hope it's a learning opportunity for all of us.

But, I also think there's a ton of room for education for beginner/intermediate level collectors through posts like this.

I really hope that you'll return to form with probing, educational, informative, and fair quizzes in the future. This particular thread can be turned into a good thread... but the original post didn't set it off on the right foot.

 

Perhaps you should post some, you seem to be one of the more knowledgeable members.

 

I would. However, Insider has access to significantly more coins, and coins with issues that make for interesting quizzes. I'm limited to coins I own. And, I make every effort to never buy a coin with problems or defects.

I've learned by looking at the sorts of coins Insider shows - and so I don't own them. I've bought them in the past, realized they had problems, and sold them. Or, I've seen them at shows. Many of the problem coins I bought were before I got decent photography equipment, and so I don't have good pictures of the problem coins I had. Thus, it's really hard for me to post a good quiz like he can.

When I was writing my book, I did intentionally buy a few problem coins to illustrate and explain. However, financially, this is generally a losing proposition. I'm not going to spend good money on a problem coin just to take pictures of it and sell it back. All this adds up to, Insider is in a unique position to photograph a host of problem coins, or coins with interesting defects, and post them as informative and useful quizzes - or even skip the quiz and just teach us something.

 

I also remember in my youth it was a RECOMMENDATION by many coin dealers that folks use a bit of baking soda with water to make a paste to rub on your silver coins to 'clean them up' and make them presentable for selling. This would have been back in the early 1970's . . . .

Z

 

You'll still see this horrific advice on metal detectorist forums, or from people who have literally no idea what they're talking about.

Shoot, we even see people post on here at least a couple of times a year about how they inherited grandpa's hoard and it was all dull so they made it shiny. And they lost half the value in the process....

 

Makes them 'proof-like' doncha know . . .

Z

 

Yes, I'm fully aware. This is an image from my book. I took a silver Roosevelt dime with original surfaces, and polished it with baking soda. You can see how the after has an unnatural prooflike sheen.

 

Well, that just created half a dozen Ebay millionaires . . . .

That's why my initial response was what it was. I figured the baking soda, once rinsed away, would leave a sheen like Mr. Clean . . . .

Z

 

I think after the coin was cleaned the soda residue was washed away.