This coin had some green verdigris where the blackest areas are in the first pic. I really thought it was environmental damage. Now, it may still be, but here is the before and after. Before: After:
I feel like the Victoria 5 cent silver is very underappreciated pricewise; perhaps because they're minor coins?
Black areas may be caused by a few things. PVC, when it is *very* thick and very old, may be black or brown. There may have been some sort of environmental contamination or organic matter stuck to the coin. Or, there may have just been some regular old dirt stuck to it, and the moistening and agitation of the acetone released it. Either way, the end result looks much better. Congrats!
I'm very new to this coin thing and I'm hoping you can answer a question I have about cleaning coins. Everything I've read, all the youtube videos I've watched says a person should NEVER clean coins. Never, ever! The people that say this are so adamant about never cleaning coins, just the thought of cleaning a coin makes me feel as if I've committed the ultimate coiner's sin. My question is...Are there certain coins or coin types it's ok to clean? Are there certain products it's ok to clean a coin with? Since you've cleaned this coin and no one on this site is acting as if you've done something unforgivable, I'm hoping you'll be able to clear up my confusion. thank you.
The problem is that if advisers, instead, say, "almost never" or "only by experts" that trouble results. Too many beginners will think they mean "Sometimes it is okay and I can probably do it myself." Then their attempts work out badly or very badly. Eventually, a serious collector will run into someone very experienced who is good at it. They can clean some coins with certain sorts of problems and do it well. It is people like that beginner, you, me, and most everyone else who cannot.
That’s a great question. The most correct answer is to never ever clean a coin incorrectly. I been collecting fifty years and I have never cleaned a coin. There are acceptable things you can do to enhance the enjoyment of a coin. Never ever ever do anything that is abrasive. Don’t rub soap or anything else on your coins. Don’t dip them into jewelry cleaner...... What CBD did was to dip his coin into acetone to remove a harmful object or substance on his coin. This does not harm the surface of the coin and CBD is an expert at handing coins..... The subject comes up here often. Stick around a bit and you will be an expert in no time..... Until then, don’t clean your coins.
Alright... I won't clean them, though it's against my nature not to... I'm hoping to learn a lot here. Everything is so confusing... Especially errors.. Thanks for replying. I now understand that I should NOT clean my coins.
The most clear analogy is to relate this to your level of experience. For example, when you were in elementary school, you were taught that certain events and certain things meant a certain thing. It was clear, it was basic. When you went to middle school, you learned there might be a little bit deeper meaning. When you went to high school, you learned there were actually more opinions and ideas, and that thing you thought meant one thing might actually have more meanings, or might mean something completely different. Finally, when you went to college you (hopefully) learned to think for yourself and assimilate data and formulate and hypothesize. The same is true with numismatic learning. Those youtube videos are directed at the elementary education level - if you just inherited grand-dad's coins, absolutely do not touch them. Well, when you get to be as experienced as @C-B-D, then you understand at the collegiate level that there are certain coins and certain methods that you can carefully conserve coins. Should a beginner attempt this? Absolutely heck no. Can an experienced hobbyist carefully conserve coins to stabilize environmental effects and hopefully preserve a coin? Yes, with knowledge and experience.
It is so true. When I first joined PCGS, I would submit coins without even thinking about touching them. Literally. I would shake/drop them into the 2.5x2.5 flip and send em off. These days I know what to do, what to use, and how to do it. But yes, I have screwed up too many times over the years.
My most notorious screw up was not taking off my titanium wedding band when dipping an MS61 bust Half. That was a $600 mistake. I fumbled the coin, and learned that titanium is much much harder than silver.
Somewhere out there in the numismatic world, there exists an UNC details scratched 1836/1336 O-108 Capped Bust Half.
That was a perfect analogy. I'm at the very beginning of my coin love exploration and I've a great thirst for knowledge. My brother gave me my first coin, a buffalo nickel, and a coin I recently found to be a morgan dollar which I'm currently gathering info on. Later he gave me what I recently found to be two silver eagles and a mercury dime. As for the coin cleaning, I may burn in coiners hell for cleaning the crap out of my first load of pennies but it will not happen again. I'm happily reformed.
You've been given explanations but one thing that I consider critical to know, is that 80% or more of all older coins, (and yes that includes all those that have been cleanly graded and slabbed), have been cleaned at one time or another in the course of their life, and some more than once. But as has been explained to you by the others there is a huge difference between cleaning a coin and harshly cleaning a coin. Cleaning = good Harshly cleaning = bad
That's it. You don't learn this stuff overnight. The first thing is to understand if a coin can or should be helped. That's the tough part. Next is to learn the proper way to go about it. Every coin is different and that's why so many just tell folks to not do anything to a coin.
