Cleaning your coins.

about toning,is it a good or bad thing on silver eagles?,i've have seem go at high prices... thanks Rob...

 

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Is it safe cleaning any type of coins with deionized/distillled water with cotton balls/Q-tips. I used deionized water from a chemistry lab with a clean Q-tip to clean some darkening silver coins. Am i doing the right thing.:desk:

 

A bit of a soak in distilled water (no rubbing) is all I will do to a modern coin and not often, most I leave as I find them, of course these are well circulated old coins. I know the rule is not to clean but sometimes the coin is down right filthy and getting the caked grim off it makes it look 10 times better. It doesnt seem to effect the tone but does seem to thin out the crud, not that I sell coins.

 

If i were to use something with the water to clean the coin what kind of material do you recommend, thanks for the help.:thumb:

 

P.S. something that will do not harm to the coin face. When it comes to my coins i just want to use the deionized water and some kind of cloth or something. I'm not interested in chemicals or anything, all i want is to clean it of the junk thats on it not make it shiny.

 

There is NO good way to clean coins---you will always lower the value.
Now if the coin has PVC or something like that then you must clean it because it will eat the coin till there isn't anything left---but for darken silver---I doubt that it has PVC and I would leave it alone because most of the time you lower the value 50%+ .

Speedy

 

:hammer: Thanx for the advice but again what kind of material should i use with the water to clean the coin?

 

That is just it---you don't even clean coins with water---there is NO good way to clean a coin.

Speedy

 

I would give money to someone who could tell if a coin had soaked for a bit in distilled water...they cant...period.

 

I would doubt that---I used to think the same way and did it some--and it seems to leave spots and marks sometimes---some of the marks come from how I dried them but some of the marks and most of the spots came from the water.

Speedy

 

When a coin has spots left on it, a REDOX reaction has occured. The silver however appears lower on the REDOX table than pure water so the reaction cannot occur without the aid of electricity, and no I don't have my coin hooked into the wall blasting it with electricity. If the coin is quickly soaked with pure water nothing will happen. If it is soaked for a long time the ions from the **** on the coin may dissolve in the water creating a REDOX reaction which in turn will oxidize the surface of the silver coin. All i want to know is, is there a material that I can use that will not create scratch marks on the coin, I already tried Q-tips but they left tiny hairlike marks when magnified. If anyone can answer this question I would appreciate it. Any help is great.

 

Nope.

Fish

 

I agree, I am not saying soak it for a long time either...the fact of the matter is that old coins gather actual dirt. I soaked a pile of dirty mercury dimes in distilled water and when I pulled them out the dirt was cut but the toning was unchanged and they look so good, they were in great shape...I think I soaked them for several hours....twice...

I have never soaked a coin and had any effect of the surface, now water and electricity I dont would even use for an ancient (but it sure as hell will take off everything to the metal) unless you like your coins showing a few thousand years worth of pitting.

I am willing to admit that if it can be avoid to never clean a coin...but I dont recommend leaving dirt on it either...if the coin is circulated already and has dirt on it, a soak in distilled water will help it without doubt but again this is just my own experience and I DO examine the surfaces of my coins as I take macro photos of them and can see every little scratch and tiny poke.

If the coin has been in circulation or contact with soil you are probably doing a good thing by removing the grime. As it has been said though, to each his own but I can assure you there is no possible way of telling it a coin has been soaked for a bit in pure distilled water....to each his own but I think it over kill to say that distilled water soak for a dirty old coin is going to lower the value...

 

I should type slower next time, there is no edit here

 

Drusus, I agree with you, a little distilled water can't hurt a coin. I'm still trying to get someone to tell me what I can use to remove dirt off my coins. Some kind of cloth or cotton balls maybe? I need to have something to wipe the crap off my coins after I soak them. What do you use Drusus.?

 

You could try compressed air if you're careful.

Fish

 

compressed air i think is a horrible idea, the air contains traces of sulphites and mixed with the water will create the coin to oxidize.