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 Replies: 10 / Views: 2,007 |
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Valued Member
United States
61 Posts |
 In this picture, on the left is a Capped Bust quarter and on the right is a different quarter that is silver to show the color difference. Long story, but I got the capped bust from a friend's small inherited coin collection that he didn't know what to do with. It is not in great condition but it seems like a normal Capped Bust quarter because the face on the obverse is how it should be, the eagle on the reverse is how it should be, there is a extremely faint 25 C on the reverse, and it is also the exact size of a quarter. However, I am still wondering exactly what it is because after scrubbing it baking soda and other chemicals (I had to do it to some of my friend's coins because some of them were covered in LOTS of grime including paint  ) the coin looks like it is made of gold, not silver. Just to be sure it was not some permanent paint added to the coin I cut off a very small piece of the side of the coin and it appears that the coin has that gold color all the way through the coin. I have spent a long time trying to figure out what this is, but I cannot find anything online besides that it might be some type of toning. Can anyone please help me with this? Moved to Classic US Varieties/Errors forum - Sap
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Moderator
 Australia
16849 Posts |
It's not gold - gold doesn't tarnish. Put it next to a piece of real gold and you'll see the difference.
If it really is made of a yellowish metal, it's probably a brass counterfeit; it would have originally had a silver (or mercury) wash to try to hide the yellow colour.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Valued Member
 United States
61 Posts |
Ok, thanks so much. So is this coin still worth anything? I now know it doesn't contain any precious metals, but does it have numismatic value?
Edited by DimeHunter
03/11/2012 08:45 am
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Quote:
I now know it doesn't contain any precious metals, but does it have numismatic value? None of the coins you scrubbed have numismatic value any more. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
if scrubbing the coins didn't remove any numismatic value cutting a piece off of it surely would have. The coin is made of silver and that is its only value right now (its silver content price). Instead of scrubbing a coin with "baking soda and other chemicals" to remove paint and other things the first thing that should always be tried is acetone because it will not do damage to the coins surface and will remove allot of things like paint and tape residue. Just about everything else will ruin the coin and take away from its numismatic value
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Valued Member
United States
61 Posts |
Sorry I keep dragging this out, but can someone please clarify two things:
1. The coin I originally was talking about is worthless.
2. If I have a rare, old, almost uncirculated coin and I use a chemical to get off a piece of something stuck on the coin and after so the coin still looks AU or MS the coin is suddenly worth face value?
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Quote:
If I have a rare, old, almost uncirculated coin and I use a chemical to get off a piece of something stuck on the coin and after so the coin still looks AU or MS the coin is suddenly worth face value? If the coin in question has an intrinsic value significantly greater than melt value - I'm not taking that impression from your description of these - then scrubbing it in baking soda would leave behind a percentage of the original value. Possibly about half what it was worth (or less) in the first place, dirty. And, meaning no disrespect, the fact that you would consider baking soda as an appropriate conservation step leads the average numismatist to believe that you might not be able to correctly identify "still looks AU or MS" should you see it - acetone, for instance, would take paint off of a coin and leave no trace of its' usage. Other conservation methods, far less intrusive than baking soda, are successful with other types of contamination. I don't wish you to think I'm being hard on you, but I do not want newer collectors who are reading this thread to believe that your actions with these coins are in any way justifiable. There are telltale signs of cleaning obvious to experienced collectors which a newer collector would never understand as evidence of such, and the whole subject of cleaning must be approached with great discretion. |
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Valued Member
United States
61 Posts |
Okay, thank you so much. I did know that cleaning coins improperly would lower numismatic value of a rare coin, but when first dealing with this coin and the entire lot (my friend's coins) I knew they were all dimes, quarters, and half dollars and was just trying to separate junk silver from pocket change. Most of them were very very dirty at the time, and all I had to work with was water, toothpaste, and basking soda. At the time I was not concerned at all about numismatic value but only the melt values of coins, as most of the coins were from the 60s so I was just trying to scrub off grime to see the date on the coin. It surprised me very much when I found this coin mixed in with the other coins, and at that point there was nothing I could do about already cleaning the coin. Well I guess theres nothing I can do now.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1796 Posts |
If you want to check to see what the "golden" one is made of, flip it and listen to the ring. If the ring is different, it's not made of silver.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
If it is actually a contemporary counterfeit then yes it does have some value (Although cutting a piece off didn't help it). These aren't as popular a collectible as the bogus bust halves are but they would still attract interest.
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Valued Member
United States
61 Posts |
Alright, thanks for that info. Just so everyone knows, by saying that I cut a small piece of I mean that if you saw the coin I'm very sure that you would not be able to tell I did anything to it. It was such a small cut that I just got a flake of the side to make sure that it was not just some type of ink or paint.
Edited by DimeHunter
03/13/2012 8:01 pm
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Replies: 10 / Views: 2,007 |
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Posted 03/10/2012 4:00 pm
