Coin cleaning?

[zakota]

TPGSadmin you brought up to me an interesting subject when I posted the fat man coin about cleaning. I have very few silver coins, most are near AU. The fat man is the only I have needed to tend to. On copper coins which accounts for most of the collection I am sorting through, I have used only three types of cleaning. Warm water and soap, olive oil, and freezing. Which all serve their own purpose for the different materials. All my coins have been circulated except for some of the UNC and proof cents and dimes still in the mint packs they arrived in. I have even soaked them in pure water. There was one copper european coin that was so black I could not even read it with a 15x. I soaked it in water, froze and soaked it in olive oil. The olive oil took the major part of the blackness off. I have never used any type of chemical stronger than olive oil. I have never tried to return a coin to a mint condition. I do try to get as much soil off it as possible. Some coins do age in a black fashion so I do not want to take away from the coins appearance. I have tried on some newer worthless LMC the electolisis. That is why on some of the stuff on ebay and other sites I have mentioned that the coin had been cleaned. The pattern of the blackness. If you notice on some of the copper coins there is one very clean area near the rim. Then it gets darker the fruther away from that area. They have may be used electrolisis on the coin. I think that electrolisis has it area of use, but I think it is better used on silver, copper leaves signs. Like blued centers of coins if left to long, taking away from the appearence. Leaving it a very light brown. Yes I do have a soft brush I do use time to time on some of the lettered areas to free up the dirt or to work the oil or water into the soil. Actually on copper coins I have left them in long enough in Electolisis that the water would turn a deep green. So I have experminted quite a bit with this method as I am sure some others have also. I have taken it to the extreams to see what affects it had on the coin. I am by no means an expert on coins, I do like science and how electolisis works. I am learning much in different subjects. I have traveled much in my life. I know history and a few languages. But the coin truly has taken me deeper into history than I have ever been before. I am learning more in science for the cleaning and the affect cleaning methods on different metals. Like the Baden and farthing coins. I knew nothing of these coins. The two coins while my father was still alive would not purchase a soda. Now each one would make a house payment on their own. It amazes me how a coin two months ago was worthless, now it is worth a few hundred dollars? How a proof may not be worth as much as a single error coin. How an error may be worth $200 today and tomorrow it is worthless. How the trends go from day to day amaze me. It goes up and down worse than the metal market. As far as this site. I would not change anything. It seems user friendly. I do thank you for inviting me. The guys have been very helpful on many subjects. Even if it is out of their expertiese they have tried to find the information for me. All I have left to sort through as far as the world coins are the asian mainly the Japanese and Chinese coins. The cash coins. Are there any members that collect Farthings. I have a 1835 1/3 British farthing I will sell anyone here on the site for one million dollars :lol:


Special thank to the three that have helped me out the most: TPGSadmin-my web site, Isaiah moderator, regandon moderator, in no particular order. It seems my posts usually receive many onlookers but not many responses. You three always respond in some way. Your help has made it much easier to sort through these coins. If you only knew how many mislabeled coins I had. I had some that were marked mexican and they were spanish. Some that were marked British and they were from one of the colonies. It truly was a mess sorting through these. Now I look back and it was fun. But not then, I was pulling my hair out :lol:

[Daniel]

I'm glad to have helped you and hope you don't stop posting. This forum just got started so there are not many active members. I'm sorry for that, I'm working my arse off on this, but I have much competition.

I would like for you to post your cleaning experiments, it would go a long way in helping others diagnose cleaned coins and add the results to my coin cleaning.

[Isaiah]

I'm glad to have helped you and hope you don't stop posting. This forum just got started so there are not many active members. I'm sorry for that, I'm working my arse off on this, but I have much competition.

I would like for you to post your cleaning experiments, it would go a long way in helping others diagnose cleaned coins and add the results to my coin cleaning.

Yes, I hope you never stop posting as well, we're glad you joined Zakota.

TPGSadmin, I try to help as much as I can with the forum, as well as the blog, and if there's anything that you ever need me to do, please just ask, don't hesitate. It's why I'm here.

~Isaiah

[zakota]

I am going to see what I can do on this coin. It looks as some one has dug it up after 125 years. It is in sad shape so I am not worried about hurting it.