question re: cleaning

[pbinnyc]

hi everyone
so i went thru 42$ in loose halves today; all skunk. i'm only working with 1 bank, so i'll just spend these.
anyway, does anyone here clean their finds? i'm pretty sure this franklin is only worth melt value, so i'd like to clean the crud off it before i show my dad (i told him about crhing and he lamented all the silver coins that passed through his hands over the decades, lol). it's a 1963 d, and it has "full bell lines", and plenty of scratches.
also, what should i use to clean it? i've got some vinegar, some lemon juice, baking soda, and a very old jar of silver polish from under the sink.
thanks,
pb

 

[Kantuckkeean]

hi everyone
what should i use to clean it? i've got some vinegar, some lemon juice, baking soda, and a very old jar of silver polish from under the sink.
thanks,
pb

Sounds like you've got the right ingredients for an experiment in coin cleaning. You just need to make a little volcano out of chicken wire and plaster, fill it some with baking soda, put the coin on top of the baking soda, pour in the vinegar and RUN!!! Let the reaction come to completion, then retrieve your coin from the resulting mess. Let me know how it goes and make sure to post a video on youtube for me.

If that doesn't work, try the silver polish.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[FL Junkman]

The ones I do clean, I just use a soft cloth and rub the coin with it. Gets off a lot of the dirt and the tarnish. This show up black on the cloth. Works for me and I don't believe it does much damage to the coin. HH

Fl Junkman

 

[Kantuckkeean]

I hit one with (don't laugh) some WD-40. It shined like the sun, but I had to wash it with soap and water, then some Goop to get the smell off.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[jim4silver]

If it is junk silver clean as much as you want. My advice is to avoid any polishes though or abrasives that leave faint scratch marks. I have tried several coin cleaners for junk silver and believe it or not the best one I have used is Tarnex liquid that I got from Walgreens (in the black bottle).

I used to use acid dips, but the Tarnex worked better and with no rubbing (I wait till I have several coins to clean and I pour a bit into a bowl and let the coins soak in it for a short time). Sometimes the dip would not remove all the tarnish from certain coins or it would make them look cloudy on some bullion rounds.

Some of the nicer halves came out looking really good and still had much of their mint luster and some did not look cleaned when I was done (the really nice 64 Kennedy coins that had a bunch of tarnish but UNC details came out looking brand new). I still would not recommend any "cleaning" for semi numismatic or numismatic coins at all, you will ruin the value if the cleaning can be detected. But for junk silver who cares.

The polished halves I have seen look too shiny and fake to me, but that is my opinion.

Jim

 

[KyFreeBird]

The best thing I have tried and it works great is Simple Green. It leaves no residue and make the silver look uncircalated. I take 15 - 20 halves and give them a bath in Simple Green, just let them soak in it over night and shaking 'em up. They come out looking new !!!!!

 

[drpineapple]

How to restore old silver with aluminum foil or a battery by electrochemistry.

Old silver is often tarnished by a thin layer of silver sulfide that appears as a brown color. The silver sulfide can be electrochemically converted back into pure silver if a negative charge is applied.

To do this, first make a solution of equal parts baking soda and table salt (NaCl) and adding enough hot water until they dissolve. Then simply place a silver object in the solution and contact it with a large piece of aluminum foil. In a short time the silver will be restored.

A very cool way to do the same thing is to use a battery. Connect the negative end of the battery to the silver and the positive end to a large electrode, like a copper plate, and dip them both in the solution.

This process occurs due to electrochemical reduction of the silver sulfide to silver.

Special notes:

THIS ONLY WORKS WITH ELEMENTAL SILVER! This restoration method does not work with silvery things like stainless steel or chrome. So make sure the item you want to experiment on really is silver before trying this.


A low voltage battery is best for this experiment, around 3 volts. Higher voltages do not improve the process and may actually damage the item you're trying to restore. If you don't want to mess up, then just use aluminum foil and skip the battery entirely

 

[$ilver$urfer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGCx9HZwYBo

How to restore old silver with aluminum foil or a battery by electrochemistry.

Old silver is often tarnished by a thin layer of silver sulfide that appears as a brown color. The silver sulfide can be electrochemically converted back into pure silver if a negative charge is applied.

To do this, first make a solution of equal parts baking soda and table salt (NaCl) and adding enough hot water until they dissolve. Then simply place a silver object in the solution and contact it with a large piece of aluminum foil. In a short time the silver will be restored.

A very cool way to do the same thing is to use a battery. Connect the negative end of the battery to the silver and the positive end to a large electrode, like a copper plate, and dip them both in the solution.

This process occurs due to electrochemical reduction of the silver sulfide to silver.

Special notes:

THIS ONLY WORKS WITH ELEMENTAL SILVER! This restoration method does not work with silvery things like stainless steel or chrome. So make sure the item you want to experiment on really is silver before trying this.


A low voltage battery is best for this experiment, around 3 volts. Higher voltages do not improve the process and may actually damage the item you're trying to restore. If you don't want to mess up, then just use aluminum foil and skip the battery entirely

Amazing!!! Thank you for this!!!

HH,

$ilver$urfer

 

[CopperRocket]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGCx9HZwYBo

How to restore old silver with aluminum foil or a battery by electrochemistry.

Old silver is often tarnished by a thin layer of silver sulfide that appears as a brown color. The silver sulfide can be electrochemically converted back into pure silver if a negative charge is applied.

To do this, first make a solution of equal parts baking soda and table salt (NaCl) and adding enough hot water until they dissolve. Then simply place a silver object in the solution and contact it with a large piece of aluminum foil. In a short time the silver will be restored.

A very cool way to do the same thing is to use a battery. Connect the negative end of the battery to the silver and the positive end to a large electrode, like a copper plate, and dip them both in the solution.

This process occurs due to electrochemical reduction of the silver sulfide to silver.

Special notes:

THIS ONLY WORKS WITH ELEMENTAL SILVER! This restoration method does not work with silvery things like stainless steel or chrome. So make sure the item you want to experiment on really is silver before trying this.


A low voltage battery is best for this experiment, around 3 volts. Higher voltages do not improve the process and may actually damage the item you're trying to restore. If you don't want to mess up, then just use aluminum foil and skip the battery entirely

This was truly amazing, and I definitely will be using it to restore some of my tarnished bullion rounds

 

[conpewter]

Not sure I'd clean a FBL franklin.

If it is just a normal strike franklin with some circulation damage I'd go with the methods above. My first Franklin was pretty tarnished so I just used a dip in acetone to clean it up.

 

[fistfulladirt]

My first old coin find, an 1883 V-nick that was an eyeball find in the flowerbed of an 1800's old house. I was in Jr. High shop class, a buddy asked to look at it. "It's kind of dark" he says, and when I turned my back, he went over and put it against the wire wheel "to clean it up".

 

[favored papa]

money is dirty I pit my junk silver in lemon juice and dish soap for 1/2 hour then rinse in hot water. makes it perty.

 

[pbinnyc]

thanks for all the advice, guys. i chickened out. i'll wait till i get a newer jfk to do it.
however i'm totally gonna try that method on some super-tarnished sterling cups i found in the trash.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

thanks for all the advice, guys. i chickened out. i'll wait till i get a newer jfk to do it.
however i'm totally gonna try that method on some super-tarnished sterling cups i found in the trash.

Ive cleaned some of mine that were sorta "tiger stripped looking" with baking soda and finished with a little silver polish and it came out looking Great..
I even did some of my Clad Ikes and brough them back to there orginal Shine and looking new again