This experiment was performed on common heavily circulated 90% junk silver so as not to run the risk of ruining a special coin. 1) The coins I chose were all 1953 Washington Quarters in similar circulated condition. The (2) "D" mint marked coins are the coins that each received a form of cleaning & the (1) "S" mint marked coin remained uncleaned. 2) For the most part the photographic examples will be showing the coins in these orders: left=uncleaned center=acetone swab & rinse then air dried right=acetone swab + water rinse + shampoo soak & rinse + acetone rinse then air dried 3) I this first set of photos you see all three coins in their raw uncleaned state.
In this section the previously mentioned cleaning took place on the respective coins while the "S" mint marked coin remains uncleaned.
Looking from let to right are further examples of uncleaned , acetone only & acetone+shampoo. The images of the single coins should run from uncleaned to most heavily cleaned ( if these pictures upload in the order I chose them )
I realized that I was not lighting my finished product/s equally so I tried to run a better control of the lighting in these next few images.
finally the obv & rev of the most heavily cleaned coin of the 3. this one I gently swabbed with an acetone soaked q-tip then rinse with tap water. Then rubbed baby shampoo on both sides and let it sit for 5 mins then rinse with tap water & patted dried. Finally I dipped into acetone and let air dry.
Have you tryed using a silver or gold polishing cloth? Used one on one of my junk silver quarters last weekend and it came out quite nice.
I was trying to achieve a clean that left the underlying luster intact & emphasized it if possible. I didn't want to actually remove all of the dirt or toning. I have heard too many horror stories about metal polishes and the extreme amounts of "character" they usually remove from coins. They end up giving silver a whizzed look that can be spotted from miles away. You should post a clear photo of the front and back of a silver coin that has been cleaned with metal polishing cloth in this thread in order to provide some examples of different types and levels of cleaning , that would really be helpful !
But anybody with an experienced eye will recognize it as a coin cleaned with a jeweler's cloth in about 2 seconds - literally 2 seconds. What you are calling quite nice, most collectors would consider atrocious.
But coins with that amount of wear have no luster - it is all long gone. All the cleaning does is make the coins look "clean", and because of that very abnormal. Circulated coins are not clean, ever. They are covered with oils from people's fingers and that oil attracts dirt like a magnet. So when that dirt is removed the very first thing that goes through a collectors mind is that these coins have been cleaned. Now the cleaning may or may not have been done harshly. But once all the dirt and oils are removed every little scratch, every little ding or mark from normal wear and tear is accentuated. And even if the coin was not harshly cleaned - it looks like it was harshly cleaned. And quite honestly, based on your pictures that is what the coins look like.
Yep To my feeble eye~ The more you fix it the uglier it gets. Kinnda like the one dip item the best. After that improvement the progress seems to be degradation......IMHO.
I happen to agree with you about the acetone only coin looking almost acceptable but I have obviously have not learned how to do perform the "process" correctly. I didn't pre-soak that coin in acetone nor did I used distilled water for the rinse. Thank goodness these were not valuable coins
I was going to add something but after reading GDJMSP's reply, guess that says it all. PS. Same results could have been done with a wire wheel or battery acid.:goofer:
Awesome experiment and good feedback, this is a great way to learn, every cleaned coin you encounter was done by someone, now you have a better idea of what to look for when purchasing. Much less expensive than buying coins and learning later they are cleaned.
