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 Replies: 19 / Views: 3,917 |
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Valued Member
United States
185 Posts |
I have some Japanese coins I'd like to clean or is this a bad idea? What should I use & what is the best way to go about it?
2 Bu (22.9% gold - 77.1% silver)
2 Shu (85.7% gold - 14.3% silver)
1 Bu (silver)
1 Shu (silver)
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Pillar of the Community
Korea, Republic Of
1881 Posts |
Cleaning kills a coin's value. Don't clean coins. Never.
Can you post a pic? What about the coins make you want to clean them?
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3049 Posts |
An angle grinder.. .. anything less and it may still be perceived as a coin
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Valued Member
United States
167 Posts |
I advise against cleaning.
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Valued Member
 United States
185 Posts |
Ok. No cleaning. I was going to wait until I heard from people with more experience. Here's a picture. The smaller coin is the 2 Bu & the larger is the 1 Bu. The other two (1 & 2 Shu) are alright.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Korea, Republic Of
1881 Posts |
Nope, no cleaning needed on those. Or any other coins.
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Valued Member
United States
185 Posts |
Thanks for the info guys. I'll never clean a coin.
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Pillar of the Community
Korea, Republic Of
1881 Posts |
....there are exceptions though, like for ancient coins. You will need to clean them in most cases to see what's under the thick crud. Also coins that have excessive dirt/crud.
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Valued Member
United States
167 Posts |
Agreed about exceptions like ancients.
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Valued Member
United States
185 Posts |
If I get any coins that look if they are on the cleaning side, I'll post them here to get advice before doing anything.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
The 2 Bu looks to be VERY pale, much more so than mine. In the picture, it looks like patinated silver.
I can understand why the thought of cleaning it arose.
Other than that, it certainly LOOKS OK.
I would have it weighed to check for authenticity.
You may try bending it slightly so see if it's made from a lead or lead alloy. I have to admit, I was once fooled with a lead coin. ONLY once!
I still have to agree with everybody's advice:
"Don't clean coins".
Perhaps try acetone, but I think that the result will be no difference.
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
packrat1, They look great as is,do not clean them. Just wondering where you got them and what they cost you. John1  |
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Valued Member
United States
185 Posts |
I just bought a digital scale from ebay & it came this week so I now able to weigh coins. 2 Bu - 3.1g / 20mm (the gold % is 22.3 not 22.9&) 1 Bu - 8.6g - 23mm I bought these years ago from ebay & I think I gave around $30 - $35 for 2 Bu & around 20 for the 1 Bu. It's been awhile so I'm not 100% sure on the prices. |
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Pillar of the Community
3772 Posts |
'packrat1' - first of all congratulations for your  of 50 posts. Two comments to your topic: 1. Never clean coins if not necessary (whatever 'necessary' means in the particular case). 2. When posting pictures, post both sides - it's a good habit. Having said that, your coins look just fine as they are. |
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Valued Member
United States
185 Posts |
I finally made 50 post. Thanks for the congratulations. Sorry for not posting both sides of the coins. I was giving an example of what the coins looked liked & why I wanted to clean them. To make up for my wrong.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
They look ok as it is. Nothing wrong with them.
As for authenticity, they also look fine with me. The so called 'gold' coin is just very low in gold content and therefore looks a bit more grey. I reckon it's just photo / light angle which makes them look quite pale in color.
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Replies: 19 / Views: 3,917 |
Posted 10/10/2014 12:47 am
