Took delivery of 1 Kg of junk (pre 1964 USA) silver today and found this coin. Bought in Australia. x30 it looks as if it is a copper coin covered with a silver layer. That's impossible unless it is a fake one. Or am I wrong ? And then there is this other coin. An half dollar 1941. Could this be an error coin ? And in the rim there is a hole. My English is not good enough to describe it. Rubbing a coin with a cloth would be considered as improper cleaning ??? Thanks for giving your opinion. Cheers to all.
the quarter looks like it was buried in the dirt for a long time and dug up. IS it pre 1964? if so then it's worth silver content. the half dollar looks as if it was acid tested to check for silver content. must have been too much for whoever did that to open a book. To answer your question, Yes. Rubbing a coin with ANYTHING will damage it. You are looking for proper methods of conservation. There have been discussions dedicated to this specifically here..... sorry I don't have a link to give you but searching 'coin conservation' or some variation of the phrase will help. These are good pieces to practice conservation on, as someone (hopefully BEFORE you got them) already ruined any collector value above metal content. Welcome to the forum!
That was quick. I am proud that I managed to post a message. For an old fart as me it is not that evident. The 1946 quarter could have been in copper layered with silver ?
Unlikely, they were made of a silver copper alloy - 90% silver 10% copper. Looks like some kind of corrosion to me.
I think it would be a waste of money to have it certified by any grading service. It would probably come back in a Details Grade, and since it only has a melt value of about $3.50, you'd never recover the expense. Chris
