coin cleaning

So, nu?, going to post some pictures? I have no experience at all with cleaning, and I'm dying to see them!

 

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HMMMM. 8,156 Posts and joined Oct 2005. This would mean approximately 52 Months or 1,580 days approximately. Based on 24 hours a day, every day no exceptions, this would be approximately 0.22 posts/hour.
Way to much spare time left over.

 

Much more fun to hear about someone with no eyebrows, no hair in nose, small facial burns saying "I tried it and it didn't work"

 

From coins.about.com on cleaning

I know next to nothing about cleaning, but just read an interesting article here. What struck me was something I'd never heard about before:

In the article was the following (she's talking about how coins are made, and what "mint luster" is, and so forth)

Now, I'll be the first to say that I never heard of this cartwheel effect (and as soon as I get home from work, I'll find some shiny coins to check this out myself).

But her main point was this: that cleaning a coin takes away some of the surface, and will destroy the cartwheel effect, and anybody experienced would be able to see it, and it will devalue the coin.

Note: I am not asserting the above as fact. I am bringing this up to get your collective opinion on this (because I'm a semi-newbie, and I never heard of this before)

Thoughts anyone?

 

Oh, ow, stop......my sides are hurting from laughter.....

 

That's the major reason for not cleaning your coins (surface reduction).

 

I'll were my fire retardent ski mask and be sure to have lots of flammable around when I do it Carl.

 

So here is the results of an overnight soak in lighter fluid. First pics before second is after and so on....

 

reverse

 

last one

 

So form your opinions, as for me it was a waste of my time.... Want something to clean them, use vinegar it'll strip that coin right down to the bare metal and be so ruined you'll have to just spend it. I get 30 dollars an hour Tom I'll be sending you a bill. Seriously after they were soaked I noticed little change and there was and oily residue left on the coins.Lighter fluid Not Recomended. Try your own experiments with vinager, ketchup, acetone, xylene, gas, flame, tarnish remover and so on and so forth and lets end this post. Have nice day! Thanks for your time.:goofer:

 

Just look at a newer coin from circulation and you will see it. Of course it will be more obvious on a proof coin.:thumb: Angle it from side to side in the daylight and you should see it.

 

Nothing spectacular regarding an overnight soak in lighter fluid.

Oily residue troubles me.....

 

Same here... Tough to get it off also. Hafta ask Ruben for that nuke and we can try that..:rolling:

 

Ok, fair enough. I appreciate your time and you giving a shot, certainly and I can end this string if y'all like. I'm sorry it got so carried away, and I apologize for aggravating/offending all of you (well most of you anyway). I will be more careful where I step the next time I post anything. Peace

P.S. I am currently soaking peroxide on a very nasty, black and green large cent and so far seems to be working well at removing the junk, and I promise NOT to keep you posted on that progress.

 

Its all good Tom. No offense taken here. Peace out

 

The reason you won't get precise directions on how to clean coins is that apparently no one here really knows how to do it. We've had it drilled into us that coins should never be cleaned, but we also recognize that somewhere there are professionals who can and do clean coins. Since we're not those professionals, all we can say is don't do it.

 

I have coin that I want to clean. It is not that valuable so if it gets screwed up not a big loss. It is Silver Canadian Maple Leaf from within the last few years. It has developed some toning on it.

Now for some background as to what happened to the coin. I had it sitting on my desk for about a year on top of a postcard that listed the local coin shows. So, after about a year, I noticed the coin was getting toned and wasn't as shiny as it used to be. I thought keeping it off the desk and on the postcard would help keep the coin clean but I have been told that a lot of paper has sulphur in it and thus the reason for the coin toning.

I asked others how to clean and I was given the following recommendations. Take a pot and line the bottom with aluminum foil. Then fill it with water and throw like a teaspoon of baking soda in it. Bring the water to a boil and put the coin in the water on top of the aluminum foil. This process will cause the toning to transfer to the aluminum foil. I was warned about being careful with the baking soda as too much could cause the pot to overflow.

Has anyone done this before with silver or is this a little off the wall? It sounds like it could have "potential" as it does not involve rubbing the coin and based on previous posts rubbing a coin with anything is bad.

 

Is the toning unattractive? There are many here who collect 'tonners'...

 

I can tell you that the toning is not "colorful". It is hard for me to describe it. I can say that it looks gray "soot" is on the coin.