Evening all...
I had a member email me last night after reading a couple of my reviews and ask me a question..
"How do you clean coins without damaging them?"
I smiled when I heard this, as most dealers do to be honest, because it is one of those things you usually dont talk about.... Honestly it is like asking a magician how they did a trick, telling you kills their buisness. I almost responded back apologizing that I couldnt elaborate on the methods to clean coins, but the closing part of his questions has forced me to write this and teach.
He concluded his short email by saying... "If NGC or more precisely NCS can clean my coins and then they can be encapsulated thru NGC, then why can't I??? " And I agree with that totally, so I am going to write this for Matt in Kirkland, California.
***FIRST AND FOREMOST...... Cleaning coins is a precise science, and only professionals should even attempt it, so my documentary here should be for review only, or you could damage a valuable coin in your collection killing its value. Should you decide to try this method, perfect it on pocket change first, then proceed with extreme caution!
Ok all, The key to cleaning any coin is patience, and that is bottomline.. I personally have seen coins cleaned that took months to do it right, and there is NO safe way to rush the process, and if you do, you will be left with a worthless coin, so be aware.
I want to share a few bits of information that I got from some good sources in the field of cleaning coins. You should start with some necessary tools. 1. Brushes: a toothbrush, a plastic or fiber glass brush. A brass brush works the best. 2. Detail tools. Either a toothpick or a soft metal pick for cleaning between letters etc. 3. Cotton swabs for cleaning slightly dirty coins 4. containers for your solvents etc. 5. A good light is always nice
The best way that I know to clean coins is using olive oil. Simply soak the coins in the oil for about 4 days (in some instances coins must soak for much longer periods). After removing the coins from the olive oil you put them in a cup with one tablespoon of warm water and TSP {(tri-sodium phosphate)about 1/4 TSP 3/4 water}.TSP is available at any place that sells house paints. Shake the cup and the let it settle for about 5-10 minutes. Rinse the coins in water to remove the TSP( always use distlled water, tap water will leave mineral deposits, which cause black dots on coins). Use an old toothbrush or other type as mentioned above and gently brush away the dirt. Some coins will clean up very nicely. The ones that still have dirt caked on, should be placed back in the olive oil. Repeat the process until you are satisfied with the results. Don't rush the cleaning process. You'll be amazed at some of the results using this method.
This is the process used by dealers for years to remove patina off older coins, then place them in the proper conditions to allow even toning or rainbow toning to cover up any evidence of the process. Most dealers even went as far as to close the process with a baking soda and distilled water bath on the coin, with gives a coin a BEAUTIFUL mint finish look(BLAST WHITE). I recommend trying this at home with pocket change for your own test. Take a old dime for instance, get a large bowl and some water(distilled if you are doing it for real to a coin important to you. Soak it, then sprikle it with baking soda.. let it sit until the soda has almost dried, the put the coin back ing the water and shake it till it is clean. some coins would require the coin to be scrubbed slightly with the brushes I outline previously.
MANY, MANY critics in the industry say that there is NO way that there is a true blast white Morgan dollar that is legitimately untouched. Critics go on to say that they were out there for over 100 years before encapsulated coins even existed, and that a precious pure metal CANNOT survive a 100 years without some from of oxidation or toning. As much as I have read and seen in the coin industry, I would have to leaned towards the critics side on this one honestly. I know in the late 70's when I was working at my first coin shop, that the owner had a wash pit just for morgan dollars, and he bought alot of baking soda :) So in my opinion, I would say that any Morgan or later silver dollar that is blast white, probably had some help over the years, but those pratices have deminished greatly with the encapsulation processes, freezing it all in time. Although silver isnt a super corrosive metal, it is still a metal, and from the day it is exposed to oxygen for the first second, it is corroding in some form or fashion, and that is just chemistry, a fact. Form your own opinion though, both sides make good points in this never ending battle.
NGC and or NCS have a racket going, there policy seems to be this if you ask me.. You clean your coins and send them to us, and we wont grade them, but if you pay us to clean them, then we will grade them, and the consumer will NEVER know the process took place, because they are but in standard NGC holders with no codes saying so. NCS has the whole spill about their process, but the bottomline is that they are CLEANING the coin, no matter what big words they say, or scientific terms they use. The process they use is unimportant to me, the bottom-line is that they clean coins, then grade them and put them in circulation. Isnt that right???? I guess that is up to you. If your a seller, I would say you wouldn't mind, the nicer coin raises your premium, but as a buyer.....How do you know if you have a pure coin or a cleaned one?
My point, and the only reason I wrote this is because I dont believe that a REPUTABLE grading company like NGC, should be in the buisness of cleaning........ then grading coins, and not making it apparent to the future consumer what has been done to the coin. They call it PRESERVING... what do you call it?
Thanks again for all your feedback to my reviews, and I hope this helps a few people understand the industry.
Till Then...............
Orignal From: Cleaning coins old and new. How to guide. Buyers Beware
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