I took your advice (partially ). Soaked for 2 1/2 days and it appeared that "stuff" was beginning to loosen up. Used one of those electric razor brushes and gently brushed it while it was still in the distilled water. Laid both sides on a clean towel for any residual moisture. Concentrated on the obverse, and basically left the reverse as is. The toning is blacker than the pic shows, but what a difference! BTW.. I used the milk jug to diffuse light, and pics are much easier to take w/ much less glare. Thank you all for the tips. Now what do you think about grading, etc. Should I still consider acetone soak? Bill
It looks like an honest XF now and don't see any need to soak it in acetone unless you still see some sort of residue on it.
That (the brush) was a bad idea ! Not that it hurt the value of this coin any, but that's only because it was only worth about melt before you did anything at all to it.
This coin looks much better and is better for it. Even dark I wouldn't do any more to it. Looks natural as it is.
Here is one place I will mildly disagree with you. The finish on this coin is such that I seriously doubt that a fairly soft brush would leave any distinguishing marks.
Looks pretty good to me now. I mean for a circulated Morgan it didn't affect it too bad using the brush I don't think. I do have one question for anybody and that's where can you find Morgans for close to melt? I can barely find common date dimes at less than 12X face. Are y'all able to buy silver at or near spot?
Personally I would not have used the brush or other tool on it. I would just through it in the distilled water and forget about it for a week or two.That being said it looks good as is. Acetone is self drying so patting it dry is not necessary. I think the most nonabrasive thing you can do to dry it after soaking it in distilled water is gently pat it on an old t-shirt.
Looks a hell of a lot better to me! What's that little squiggly line above the 4th and 5th stars to the right of the date?
Looks much better. I would not have used the brush and I probably would have started with acetone but from you picture it doesn't look like it needs it now. @MKent I've only once been able to get a Morgan at the actual silver melt value. It was heavily polished. Morgan and Peace dollars - in my experience - tend to go for more than melt.
You missed my point. I agree, he could have scrubbed that specific coin with a brillo pad and it really wouldn't have made any difference. But that doesn't change the fact that using a brillo pad on a coin, or a brush, or anything else, is a bad idea.
One of my pet peeves is not having an answer to really good question. Yours qualifies, and I can't give an answer. Using a small magnifying glass under a larger one doesn't help. (Wish I still had my old microscope.) My camera won't take extreme close-ups. Looks to me like a little ridge, where the area to the right drops down a little bit. Die or stamping issue?
Point taken on all the brush discussion. That's one reason I didn't take it all the way down below the tarnish level. Don't seen any evidence of brush stroke scratching under heavy magnification, but I won't take the chance on any other coins. The little circulation dings sure pop out now that they aren't covered with crud. Thank you for all the replies. Bill
I was thinking about what these Morgans sell for as oppose to what you get for them when selling to a dealer. I was at a local PM and coin dealer and saw someone sell him some silver including a decent Morgan and he bought it below melt. When I wanted to buy, they wanted to charge $28 for low-grade, worn down coins. I wanted to step in and buy from him but it wasn't my place. On Ebay they usually fetch top dollar because of demand.
Those Gold and Silver buying store make a huge margin on Morgans and Peace dollars. I can only assume dealers do the same thing, not that I blame them. I too was in a store buying some junk silver coins at $3 over spot to give the grand babies and a customer came in and sold $20 face for 75% of spot. I wanted to to tell him I'd pay him more but that wouldn't have been ethical on my part and since he obviously had no idea what he had he was glad to get the money. I asked about buying those same coins from the dealer but was told he had to hold them two weeks before he could sell them. I decided to leave empty handed as I wasn't getting a bargain that day.
