When a silver coin is dipped and stripped of it's patina....how long do you suppose it takes to start looking normal again...and regaining some patina? I just popped this out of a Capitol Plastics holder....and it's ghostly pale and unnatural looking. It's got excellent detail, mint luster in protected areas, has not been abraded...and is genuine, but it sure could use a little character. Nightowl
I have a seated half that has that exact color, looks so out of place compared to the rest of my silvers.
I have been told to pop these in an old silver tea pot or something like that and they will start retoning quicker. To me that is just tarnish moving from one to the other, not sure if there is any other way to do this. Me I would just let mother nature work her magic - give time it will start to retone.
Once stripped of its luster, which is what over-dipping does, a coin will never again tone like it did when it had luster. Luster is what makes a coin prone to toning to begin with. Think of it like this, if greatly magnified the surface of coin with luster would look like this - /\/\/\/\/\. While the surface of a coin without luster would look more like this - ______________ . It is the multiple facets (more area) of the metal's surface being exposed to the air, and the angle of those facets reflecting and refracting the light that creates the colorful effect of toning that out eye sees. The less the angle and the smaller and smoother the surface area - the less the light is reflected and refracted thus producing less color, and the more the time frame is lengthened. That's what dipping does - it flattens out and smooths the surface of the coin when it removes that fine textured layer of the metal.
Yuck, that looks like more than a dipping! I doubt that the coin willl ever look "natural" again--what a shame!
I like Dougs explanation. It makes sense. Dipped/cleaned coins, when left exposed to the atmosphere over weeks/months, will often start to tone to a brownish tone which is splotchy and uneven, and not attractive. A lot has been written in the forum about naturally retoning dipped/cleaned coins, for example by placing them in sulphur-containing paper envelopes. I have not tried this, and would like to see what toning can be accomplished that way.
A friend of mine told me to wrap it in newspaper, which is pretty sulphur laden, and place the bundled coin in a plastic zip lock bag. That's probably what I'm going to do. I just want to get rid of the "Casper" look. It's freakishly white. Nightowl
Yes. Yes, it does. Which means one answer to the OP "how long do you suppose it takes to start looking normal again...and regaining some patina?" is NEVER. It will never regain original surfaces; they're gone forever. But since the OP said "some" patina... by natural process, it will take years, maybe decades. Beware the same guys who stripped it in the first place might do a little AT ! :hammer:
Just a question , you said their was some mint luster left in the protected areas , wouldn't dipping remove the surfaces everywhere , after all it is a liguid and would cover all areas . Wondering if some other method was used like a baking soda paste ? rzage
Dipping does remove a microscopic layer from the entire coin. This coin has been lightly circulated, and the mint luster was simply worn from the coin. I have read that the cartwheel mint luster that we've come to covet, is more pronounced on coins of high mintage. The seated dollar in question has a mintage of 140 thousand pieces, and the surfaces are much finer than you'd find on a Morgan Dollar. The tiny nicks in the field...when viewed under high magnification, have not had the edges rounded. It's not been cleaned in a mechanical manner or with an agent like baking soda, but the original mint luster was worn from the fields before it was ever dipped. I've never used the baking soda/aluminum foil thing to clean a coin from my metal detecting hobby...but I know some people do that. I wouldn't know how to recognize if that was done to this coin. Nightowl
