How to clean a Silver Coin.

LuisTH

Full Member
May 9, 2007
214
2
Detector(s) used
Whites DFX series with 9" coil and 18" coil.
I got a 1 OZ fine silver dollar from 1998, which an officer who graduated back in 1998 gave to me, while i was still in the military in Aircrew AW.

He gave it to me because there is a tradition in the Navy, not sure about the other branches of the military, in which when an officer graduates he has to give a silver coin to the first enlisted personel he/she sees, and I was one of the lucky enlisted personnel.

Anyways, he told me to keep it and never depart with it, that it would bring me luck. Being in the military you can use all the luck you can get, so I put it in one of the pockets in my flysuit/coveralls, but without realising it, I put it with some of my small survival items and I never took it out of that pocket, unless it was to wash the coveralls or to transfer the items from one coverall to another. I had the small survival items, and the coin in a sealable plastic bag..

I was just looking through my old stuff and found one of my old coveralls, and the bag with the coin and the small survival items. The coin was covered with some black powder, which my guess is that it got it from my knife sharperner.

After cleaning it for about an hour with soap and a toothbrush most of the black stuff fell off, but it still has some of the black stuff in it and haven't been able to clean it up.

Any advice on what to use to further clean it up without damaging the coin?
 

Farmercal

Hero Member
Mar 20, 2003
687
1
Earth
Detector(s) used
Explorer II, X-Terra 70 & Excalibur 1000
If it is not considered valuable or doesn't have any collectable value to it toothpaste will usually clean silver up pretty nice and it doesn't cost anything to use. If it does have some collector value, I would not use this method. Also, most silver cleaner will do fine.
 

cryptodave

Hero Member
Aug 25, 2005
857
16
Currituck County, NC
Detector(s) used
Minelab
baking soda and water will clean it and not leve abrasion marks.
Just rub the baking soda on the coin between your thumb and forefinger while wet.
 

OP
OP
LuisTH

LuisTH

Full Member
May 9, 2007
214
2
Detector(s) used
Whites DFX series with 9" coil and 18" coil.
Thanks for the advice. I will try the baking soda cleaning method.
 

SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS

Gold Member
May 22, 2005
7,205
60
Primary Interest:
Other
24 hours in catsup. Works just fine.
Learned this from DeKalb. ;D

Take a zip-loc bag and put a little ketchup in it.
Check it in about 24 hours. There will be this
green/black mess in there. Take a toothbrush
and brush it off. Repeat the process as necessary.


have a good un..............
SHERMANVILLE
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top