Cleaning Coins with Pencil Eraser!

As the old song goes, "One of these things is not like the others..."

 

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I second that Merc!

 

If you suggest cleaning your eyes with a pencil eraser is an excellent idea, works and tested, I will endorse this method. I think we all should know what the answer is.

 

If this was an accepted method, it would have been endorsed decades ago and would be something like Chapter Three in every coin collecting book. There's a reason it's not.

 

Matt - Just for those reading that might not get it, how much extra (lol) do you pay for those nice shinny coins when they come into your shop?

 

Honestly, I try not to buy them... they are much harder to get rid of then coins that haven't been messed with. If I have to buy them... Maybe half or less of what they would have been if they hadn't been cleaned.

 

As noted, pencil erasers are abrasive.
Rubbing them on a coin to remove schmutz will scratch the surface of the coin.
Definitely not advisable for any coin that has even the slightest numismatic value.

 

That is exactly what I figured.

 

I only use a pencil eraser on my Chuck E Cheese tokens to shine them up good!

 

If you prefer the abrasive coin destroying method of cleaning coins, here is the proper method:

Carefully grasp the coin by its edges with a Vice Grips, but not too hard, you don't want to dig in too far!

Now, clean both sides well with a wire wheel. On copper coins, they should look nice and orange.

Then take a sand blaster to it to remove the scratches left by the wire wheel.

Now it's ready for the pencil eraser!

 

Nice little experiment, Doug.

 

If you are a collector who wants to see the value of your coins stay equal or improve overtime, for $30 you can satisfy yourself and get a definitive answer to this question: Clean one coin with an eraser. With no explanation, send it in to one of the better grading houses. (That's your $30) See what happens when it comes back. If it comes back graded without any negative conotation on it, you can post it here for all the world to see, and prove your point. If it comes back with any reference to cleaning, doctoring, tampering or just a details grade on it, no need to post it. You can remain anonymous and pretend it didn't happen, so others' thinking can remain intact and there is no embarrasment. But privately you will know the answer. I suspect the post will eventually die, without this picture posted to it.

 

Actually, I would think that a coin that had an eraser applied to it could be 'saved' simply by carrying it around in your pocket and sometimes using it as your 'worry stone' or just taking it out and rubbing it for good luck. The friction caused by the movement of your fingers on it would at some point 'naturally' wear down the spots where the eraser had been and so the cleaning by eraser would no longer be visible, even with magnification. The fact that hands have oils will of course help your cause, as will other coins in your pocket that will jingle against it. Then the coin will be perfectly acceptable as a coin to trade in. The only downside is that the grade will probably be a good 20 points (or more) on the sheldon scale lower. So if you had a AU or XF coin to begin with, you would be lucky to have a VF20 when you were done. If it was a VF 20 or 30 to start, then maybe you would end up with a F-12. So probably an eraser on a coin is not totally bad, since being low tech, the force you can naturally apply to the coin with the eraser is generally not strong enough to deeply break up the surface of the coin. So having it wear down 'naturally' to the point below that is feasable, IMO.

But I do think you are wasting your time this way, because to 'save' the coin from your efforts then takes much time and effort to wear it down in a natural way. I doubt that that time and effort is worth it for anyone, when the value can be more just by not doing it (see Newhart video, above, labeled "stop it") and by putting the time and effort that it would take to save it into a job or something else that actually pays money.

 

As fellow collectors will see, copper and bronze coins in particular become "pink" with the use of an eraser to clean these coins. Erasers are composed of finely ground glass which scratches the surface making the coin worth face value and/or largely uncollectable and undesireable.

 

I used to work in a jewlery store, and learned all about abrasives, chemicals, common contaminents there. This guy is a highly certified pro, who restores artifacts for museums (my state museum being one). The ONLY thing he would use to clean jewlery/items is lightly pressurized steam of purified (not mineral, spring or tap) water. He had very powerful microscopes/equipment to examine, and this truely was harmless. AND he knew how to handle items (even a sterile room!)

Now, I like this method - but it's expensive, and the problem I saw after one experiment is that when I cleaned a few of my coins (in his shop after hours), is that dealers thought I 'cleaned' them with something else - lessening the value.

IMO, there is one - only one - way to clean coins, and I still believe it's perfectly harmless. BUT . . .. because most can't, I got lumped into the group with 99.9% of others, and it depreciated my coin values. Unfairly, but I get it.

My intent was never to pass something off as higher grade (I wasn't going to sell them, just wanted them assessed). Rather my intent was to remove the junk so you could truly see the underlying surface, and appreciate the coins.

Oh, well . .. .

 

Golly - it sure does make 'em nice and shiny!
I'd better jump right on erasing up a passel of my Canadian large cents!

 

You basically pressure washed the coins... I certainly would call that abrasive. It disrupts the metal flow lines on the coin, hence why they look unnatural and/or cleaned.

 

"lightly pressurized" - enough that it wasn't a drip, but NOT pressure washing. . .
Not to argue, you made one assumption, and it sounds like you're reaching with 'disrupting the metal flow lines' to justify some established position.


I saw the process - you didn't. I'm just offering my observations/experience, and you discount/discredit out of hand - that's rather rude and depending on your expertise, ignorant.

To be fair, I could have been more clear: cleaning=bad, even under labratory conditions by the best, because most cleaning isn't labratory level.

Perhaps it merits a separate thread, but this does raise a related question: When is cleaning good? To be fair, for most of us on CT, the answer is never. But most would agree shipwreck salvages cleaned of barnacles to uncover the coins is generally accepted. So, since most of the comments are consensus: "don't clean", then under what other circumstances would you agree a coin should be cleaned (anything other than rinsing with distilled water?)

I'll bet this could reval some funny stories (e.g. "one time my dog ate, then pooped my coin . . .")