Gold and silver prices are down

Varmint said:
Maybe people say no cause clean junk silver doesn’t look real? No idea. I don’t bother but I’m lazy.
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I mean, BU constitutional rolls command a premium over regular circulated stuff? Anyhow, It doesn't look PERFECT by any means after cleaning. Just, a lot better. Than a dirty, grimy coin thats been passed around 100,000s of hands and pockets and change draws over the past half century. I tend to agree with Thorin, I like my silver shiny. Its actually pretty easy to do with a tinfoil and baking soda bath.
 
Varmint said:
Maybe people say no cause clean junk silver doesn’t look real? No idea. I don’t bother but I’m lazy.
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Freddy Q said:
I mean, BU constitutional rolls command a premium over regular circulated stuff? Anyhow, It doesn't look PERFECT by any means after cleaning. Just, a lot better. Than a dirty, grimy coin thats been passed around 100,000s of hands and pockets and change draws over the past half century. I tend to agree with Thorin, I like my silver shiny. Its actually pretty easy to do with a tinfoil and baking soda bath.
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You guys can also just eat that junk silver and become a Papa Smurf aka Paul Karason.


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not new guy said:
Won't it just tarnish again? I have ASE rolls that I've never opened and I can see the coins tarnished inside.
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It would, but junk silver is usually a LOT dirtier than just some tarnish (or toning which actually sometimes looks good IMO) like on ASEs or Maple Leafs or whatever.

Like I said, picture coins that have been in *active circulation* for the past 50+ years
 
Freddy Q said:
It would, but junk silver is usually a LOT dirtier than just some tarnish (or toning which actually sometimes looks good IMO) like on ASEs or Maple Leafs or whatever.

Like I said, picture coins that have been in *active circulation* for the past 50+ years
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Would you perform the tinfoil and baking soda treatment 45CA225A-F924-40D9-86E9-2C1ED066E561.jpeg D3CF724A-0CAB-46F4-B603-11D763E18FEA.jpeg 67C37E29-AF50-4219-AF77-81E8E0AEE9C1.jpeg for Morgans and Liberties?
 
I found my box of coins from my paper route days in the 70's.
I've never been an active collector but did amass quite a collection at one time, sadly I sold off most of my silver back in the 80's when I was partying 4 nights a week without sleep.
I'm looking for a buyer for the remainder of my collection, mostly wheat pennies with some silver and paper.
Thought I'd ask here 1st, looking for a fair price for the lot.

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DJBrad said:
Would you perform the tinfoil and baking soda treatment View attachment 786011View attachment 786012View attachment 786013for Morgans and Liberties?
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I would NOT clean Morgan's since most of them have numismatic value. (You're generally gonna pay more for a Morgan, even a common date, than just the silver content). The walking liberty's, well, the ones you pictured actually look pretty nice to my eye I wouldn't clean those either. (Like I said, I think some tarnish - toning - actually makes older, somewhat worn, coins look nicer. You wouldn't be able to make out Liberty on the slick to the left, without tarnish/toning)

The only coins I would clean, are super common, later date junk silver (basically just Roosevelt dimes and Washington quarters).

On the other hand, if you're never planning on selling them..... clean away I suppose. (The Liberty's anyhow. Still don't clean the Morgans haha) They're you're coins, so do what makes YOU happy.
 
Picked these up today.....I overpaid at $29/ea but they had them and are factory sealed so I said "screw it". I usually don't buy bars but started to get into it a couple of years ago with Englehard.
 

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Freddy Q said:
Curious what you guys think, as people seem pretty split about this.

Junk/Constitutional/90% silver. Common dates, heavily circulated, NO numismatic value coins. OK to clean? (Non-destructively, with baking soda bath or non abrasive silver cleaning cloth, etc) Or not.
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You're cleaning the history right off of those coins.
 
Freddy Q said:
Curious what you guys think, as people seem pretty split about this.

Junk/Constitutional/90% silver. Common dates, heavily circulated, NO numismatic value coins. OK to clean? (Non-destructively, with baking soda bath or non abrasive silver cleaning cloth, etc) Or not.
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413dan said:
I am now having thoughts of constitutional coinage tumbling around with 45 brass and corn cob media coming out bright and shiny.
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About a decade ago I was sorting several hundred dollars of pennies a week through four Ryedale sorters. The machines were gunking up on a regular basic because the coins were so filthy. I was asked to share my coin cleaning technique on realcent.org and this is what I posted:

Through pure luck I happened upon a huge tumbler. (I'd previously conducted Scientific Research with a ton of small tumblers of various types.) I learned that I didn't need to add the plastic BBs, aquarium gravel, or any of the other stuff I had messed with--just pennies, water, and the tiniest bit of soap or shampoo from the dollar store. The soap probably helps clean, but more importantly it adds a bit of lubricity to the whole mess. I tumbled them for about half an hour, then--this is important--I rinsed them repeatedly until I got no more suds. This Scientific Process preserved the patina of the coins; aquarium gravel or other tumbling media removed it.

I'd dump the coins into a mesh basket, and let the excess water drip off. The rinse water has chlorine in it, so I'd soak them in acetone 1) to rinse off the chlorine, and 2) acetone is said to kill verdigris. It's been awhile, but as I recall I'd soak them for about 15 minutes. The acetone will eventually absorb water and have to be replaced. This is why I'd let the excess water drip off as much as possible, but avoid letting the pennies dry out.

You'll have really ugly pennies if you just let them air-dry. Through pure luck (I lead a charmed life) I found a dual-tub jewelry polisher, and it came with a huge box of coffee bran--perfect for drying/polishing. I powdered some carnauba wax and added a tiny bit to the coffee bran. (Through pure luck I discovered a Magic Bullet at a yard sale. Works perfect for this.) I think the carnauba helps keep the coins from tarnishing even when carelessly stored in damp sheds and basements. It certainly makes them move smoother through the Ryedales as well as coin returns! I conducted Scientific Research with all kinds of ideas for drying, but the jewelry tumbler (you could use a Harbor Freight cement mixer) is the only idea that worked, and it worked well.

I was separating the pennies from the drying media by shaking them in a mesh basket, until I tore my rotator cuffs in an incident totally unrelated to penny sorting. Then through pure luck I stumbled upon a vibratory contraption that let me drop the media/pennies mixture onto a screen. The vibration lets the media fall through the screen into a hopper while the pennies dance to the exit end of the screen. It's louder than hell.

Now the coins are ready for the Ryedales. If your machine isn't clean as a whistle, clean it thoroughly. The powdered carnauba will eventually coat the hopper, wheel, and ramp with a thin slippery layer. You'll love it. Scientific Research suggests that powdered Teflon is no substitute for powdered carnauba.
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I haven't read the other thread, so I don't know what's posted there. I ran one test of coins, though, tumbled with a drying/polishing medium containing powdered carnauba wax. I placed several treated and untreated coins outside about 100 yards from the ocean where they were subjected to yucky, salty air. After ten-days there was much corrosion on the untreated coins, but nearly none (one coin showed a speck of green) on the waxed coins.
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A couple years ago I stumbled upon several pounds of Canadian cents that had gone through this process and found no verdigris whatsoever. For small batches, I'm thinking you could use a Harbor Freight vibrating tumbler with corn cobs or black walnut hulls with just a dab of powdered carnauba. Coin collectors panic at the thought of cleaning coins but I don't see a problem with removing filth while retaining patina. (Doubtful that collector coins would be very dirty.)

pennies.jpg

 
Saw a clip of a guy that is paid to retrieve coins from fountains, and other places. He washes them in a small cement mixer with detergent. The coins themselves are the abrasive. He then counts them and either deposits them or returns them to the owners along with his bill for recovery and cleaning.

If coins are really nasty, I hve no problems with cleaning but if they are just not shiny, leave hem be.
 
Win said:
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I like a little dirt stuck to the devices in 19th century coins. I like my numismatic coins to look like they were plucked directly from history.
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100% agree, and I collect colonial copper and large cents. The feeling of "touching history" when I'm handing a coin from, say, the 1700s, is one of the biggest thrills in coin collecting in my opinion.

(That being said, this is the "Gold and Silver" thread, and my original question was about what you guys thought about cleaning heavily circulated, no-value-except-for-the-silver-content, "constitutional" silver coins)
 
Freddy Q said:
100% agree, and I collect colonial copper and large cents. The feeling of "touching history" when I'm handing a coin from, say, the 1700s, is one of the biggest thrills in coin collecting in my opinion.

(That being said, this is the "Gold and Silver" thread, and my original question was about what you guys thought about cleaning heavily circulated, no-value-except-for-the-silver-content, "constitutional" silver coins)
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FWIW - I hold some of my silver as constitutional silver. When I go through the VG and Cull buckets at my local coin shop I pass over the overtly polished or cleaned coins. They just don't look right to me.
 

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