A Few Questions

If you look on the side bar under navigation you will see a glossary. It has most of the answers that you have. Most experts here will say that you should never clean coins with anything. You need to weigh the value against the possible improvement caused by a cleaning technique. Keep on asking those questions. I'm still learning too.

Any cleaning by scrubbing is harmful.

Dipping:
When I was younger, my coin dealer sold a coin dip. The dip would actually remove some of the surface of the metal to brighten the coin. It gave an artificial looking brightness when compared to a coin that has actual mint luster. It does not impart colorful tones such as gassing.
Since it removed the surface, it is harmful.

Acetone does not remove any of the surface of a coin. All it does is remove residue and dirt that will dissolve in it. I have taken many old coins from circulation that, under magnification, had "gunk" inside loops of letters etc. When I gave it a 10 second bath in acetone, the only perceivable difference was some of the gunk was gone. After repeating this process, all of the loops of letters etc. were clear of gunk. It makes for a way to see re-punched MMs.

I know that a lot of dealers sell something called MS 70 which is marketed (on the bottle) as a coin brightener. I admit when I found a couple of proofs that had been circulated, and looked pretty crummy, the MS70 made them look a lot nicer and closer to original. But since they were only worth .50 anyway, there was not harm, IMO, in using this on them. It just increased their eye appeal. I do not believe they are nice enough looking ever to be taken as non-circulated proofs - especially since they still have typical contact marks on them.

Some folks somewhat carelessly speak of "dipping a coin in acetone", or "dipping a coin in soapy water", thus muddying the terminology.

"Dip", when used in a coin cleaning context as a noun rather than a verb, is a coin cleaning agent which is intended to remove toning, or tarnish, from silver coins. A typical dip is composed of water, thiourea and an acidic agent. The actual acid used varies from mixture to mixture; some use sulfuric acid, some use something milder such as citric acid. The acidic nature of "dip" means that attempting to use it on copper, copper-alloy or other base-metal coins will most likely destroy the coin.

Dipping a coin in acetone or water is harmless to the coin. Dipping a coin in "dip" will strip off whatever toning it may have and, in all likelihood, create a coin that "looks cleaned". Collectors don't want coins that "look cleaned". Coin dealers, knowing this, pay less money for coins that "look cleaned". Which is why cleaning coins is generally seen as "bad".


Again, some careless usage of terminology has muddled up two different terms, though in this case it rarely causes confusion.

The "Spot Price" of a precious metal is the price for that metal quoted on the news or on precious metal websites such as Kitco, or on our own CCF spot prices page, which you can also find a link to over on the left hand side of your screen in the Navigation sidebar. Spot prices are typically quoted in US dollars per ounce of pure silver.

Thus, "Spot Price" is a property of the metal as a whole, not of specific objects made out of that metal. It is more correct to talk about the "bullion value" of a coin, rather than the "spot price" of a coin. To calculate bullion value from spot price, you need to know the Actual Silver Weight of the coin in question or, if this is unknown, the actual weight of the coin as well as the fineness (purity) of the silver in that coin. The calculation is thus:

BV = Spot Price x ASW

or

BV = Spot Price x weight (converted to troy ounces) x fineness

People in other countries have to add in a conversion factor for their currency, since spot prices are rarely quoted in anything other than US dollars.