Tarnishing Cleaned Bullion Coins ... Natural Toning

There's a thread on cleaning tarnished bullion....so what if you get the stuff he's cleaned and don't like it stark white ... or polished? Don't get too uptight yet. This gets the horse started down the track ... but time still is the ultimate friend. Here's a relatively natural way to tone silver coins. I say "relatively" because it is accelerated in the initial phase.

What causes a silver coin to tarnish, more times than not is related to sulphur dioxide in the air. If you don't have enough ... I'll teach you how to get some more.

First thing's first though.... when you get a coin that's been polished, there's every probability that whatever was used to polish it ... contained silicone to inhibit further tarnishing. The first thing you need to do is get rid of that little feature. Soaking in acetone will remove any and all oils and silicones from the coin's surface.

Now ... go to the pharmacy at Walmart and ask them to order you a small container of "flowers of sulphur". If you explain to them what you are using it for, they will look at you funny, and order it. It's basically powdered sulphur. You know ... like our chemistry sets had in them in the 60s.

Now ... you need to do something to make it into sulphur gas. If you live where it's warm all the time, you'll need to think of another method, but I use an oil filled electric radiator for supplemental heat in my shop. It actually gets quite hot. Take some sort of small implement...I generally use a medium blade screwdriver, and dip a little of the sulphur and drop it directly onto the radiator, between the coils. It's going to stink a bit, but you can take that stark white silver coin and hold it over the fumes and it will begin to tone right before your eyes. You want to excercise patience in doing this....and don't leave the coin alone with the gas pouring past it or you can do extensive damage.

Once it begins to tarnish a bit, place it in a paper envelope and check it once a week or so. Once it gets to where you are comfortable with the color, a quick rinse with acetone will remove any remaining active residue and the toning should stop. Don't put it back in that envelope though, or the process will continue ... although more slowly.

I forgot to address the "polished" end of things. You can soak the coin in a solution of 75% household ammonia, and 25 percent water, and that will diminish the shine. You may have to leave it in the solution for several hours. I've had to leave some overnight. Once the polished surface is gone, acetone then the sulphur treatment will get you going.

I recommend doing this in a well ventilated area. I can only imagine that breathing the stuff can't be all the good for you.

This is certain to be controversial. We're not supposed to meddle, but once the meddling has already begun ... you should at least have a chance to try and correct the harm that's been done.

Chance