Thoughts On My Ebay Purchase Canadian 50 Cent Piece

Sound advice indeed, but ............

for a $20 coin that has already been professionally graded, answering a flurry of questions to me, is a waste of time for both parties.

When you get the coin, can you post better photos? I think you did more than well... that reverse looks like it was struck with early dies...

SPP-Ottawa, I will most definitely post pictures when I receive it. I am thinking it may be here by Tuesday.

Beautiful! Very nice!

Or what it MIGHT look like.

Sorry to burst your bubble here, but if you're buying a 50+ year old "blast white" silver coin, with silver being so prone to toning/tarnish, and dipping being such a common and generally accepted practice, then chances are that the coin has already been dipped by someone at least once in its life.

The Force, have you ever licked your thumb and rubbed a coin to see the date better ? You cleaned it. Take an old cent and rub it with your T-shirt. What have you done ? Well you've made it look much better since you took off all the dirt, and the cotton won't scratch bronze so you didn't harm it, but you cleaned it.

I'd bet that 99% of the collectors on this site have coins that have been cleaned, one way or the other, and even many slabbed coins have been dipped. I remember reading in the Canadian Coin News or on the defunct CCCS coin site that there was a Canadian collector who owned a 1936 Dot dime which was graded as ICCS-65 and had dark tarnish. It was dipped and regraded to 66 with no remarks.

A dip is not like polish. It removes the silver oxide, basically a type of rust. It's like dusting your mahogany dining table with a dry chamois, not a dish-rag and Pledge. If not removed, sometimes the tarnish causes pitting. Silver in slabs and flips can tarnish on their own if there was some moisture sealed in. Sent through the mail in winter at -20 to a warm house can cause a start to problems in slabs. How many times have you seen slabs or flips with RED for the cent but now they're not really full red now ?

The slabbed one should stay in the slab. IMO it looks a bit less than MS-63.

Give freedom to the ICCS 50 cents and dip the darn coin in TarnX for 15, maybe 20 seconds, TOPS (pour some in a small glass, swish around), you can rub lightly around the edge with your finger to help a bit, then rinse with lots of water, dry it and let it return to room temperature before putting it in a 2 x 2. You can return the liquid to the bottle and reuse. If the coin doesn't come out better-looking than in that flip, then I'll send you a silver dollar like the 1966 I posted earlier. And when you show your new raw 50 cents to your collecting buddies, they will ALL go "WOW". And they'll have no idea it was dipped.

"TarnX is a big no no... It literally eats the coin and dulls it, especially if used for more than 5 seconds. Highly corrosive to silver. Better to get actual coin dip"

Have you ever tried it before or is that just an opinion ?
Did you not see the 1966 dollar above ?

If your quote is true then that would mean the coin I showed is dull because it was in TarnX but to me it looks shiny. Guess I'll get my eyes checked. If you have an old worn silver coin and dip it, it may look a bit dull, but if it's a shiny coin, it doesn't take off the shine unless you put it in for a long time. That's why I said 20 seconds tops. I know because I have experimented with many methods including baking soda, CLR, coin dip, rust remover, and any number of other cleaning products.