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 Replies: 13 / Views: 1,878 |
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New Member
United States
1 Posts |
Please forgive me if this information is already out there. I read through the new members page and the inherited collection thread and I don't see any answers to my questions here. First as you now know, my family has inherited a coin collection. One stash in particular were coins that were just loose in the bottom of some boxes and then a few more were in a glass jar - all the coins pictured below were found this way. These were all just filthy, and, not knowing anything, I rinsed them off in a bowl of soap and distilled water. I didn't scrub them with anything but moved my fingers over them as I rinsed them off in the distilled water. HOWEVER... before I found out that you're not supposed to clean coins, I think I royally messed up and I soaked a handful of the worst ones in the distilled water and used one of my cleaned makeup brushes and a q tip (I saw this in a YouTube video before I learned more!) The ones I did this to were like crazy green crusty and dirty. The treatment didn't help much but I did get the dates more clear on one or two of those. The God-aweful mistake is the Indian Head penny I set in acetone for a few minutes at an older friends advice. It definitely helped but WHILE I was soaking it is when I finally took the time to google it and all the articles about never ever cleaning a coin popped up. This leads to my questions. 1. Why is the value of a coin with unknown dates and details due to age and mishandling higher than if that same coin has been cleaned enough to show the details? 2. How do you even know the value of a coin if it's not clean enough to find flaws or value markers? 3. Not cleaning related - would you recommend actually opening and going through rolled coins? (there are literally hundreds of rolls) or is it most likely they're not worth much? Also, just for the sake of it, here is what I have so far sorted out. These pictures do not include the hundreds of uncirculated silver dollars, and thousands of dollars worth of rolled quarters, dollars, and half dollars stored in bank bags and socks. We also have sequenced $2 bills as well as a couple of uncut sheets ($2 bills aren't worth anything to my knowledge... correct me if I'm wrong). My goal is just to document what I've got and get to a professional to find out if I have anything of real value. The more I read and get into the stories of the coins the more I think I may actually want to just keep a lot of this, as I'm starting to have fun here! Thanks ahead of time for any input whatsoever!           |
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
 to CCF. As a general rule,never clean a coin. If you do need to "conserve" coin do so with as much experiences as possible.Practice on junk coins. Only use 100% pure acetone,not nail polish remover which contain unwanted stuff. As to rolls,there is a whole section here on CCF about roll searching. I search cent rolls,about 2500 coins per week looking for errors and varieties as well as high grade coins. I think we are going to need better,up close pics of coins in question.If you can not tell what a coin is because it is covered it gunk,start out with distilled water and a very worn out soft toothbrush and still be gentle.Use the search box,upper left of page on cleaning coins. John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5239 Posts |
You weren't kidding about some of the coins being in rough shape. The 8 reales would be worth something even with the hole. I see a third reich Zinc coin there, which has minimal value in that condition.
There are different kinds of problems on those coins. Some may be helped by acetone. Green Corrosion is not helped by acetone. Neither is zinc corrosion. So we can't make too many general comments here-what works for one coin will not work for another.
Definitely look through your rolls, but you will need some patience. I hope that they aren't corroded too.
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New Member
36 Posts |
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New Member
36 Posts |
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
Pick out a few of what you believe to be the most valuable and/or nicest condition examples. Show us those photos. From the photos thus far presented there is value in pre-65 silver just because of the silver value.
Once a coin becomes as corroded as some of those you presented above, cleaned or not makes little difference. Unless a corroded coin is of some substantial value, that corrosion will devalue them to the face value of the coin only.
If you have thousands of coins and rolls you still may have silver bullion value of some significance.
We will happily advise based on the photos or inventory you can present to us.
Have fun and I hope you find some winners.
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Rest in Peace
United States
18456 Posts |
Ok 1st. question is Did the person you inherited this collection from have a metal detector ? A lot of the coins you showed us looks like they came out of the ground . Some of your coins are quite corrosive ,no cleaning will ever help those . Just about everything you attempted to do to make your coins look better seems ok but DON'T do it again .Ask us first ! Are those rolls of coins your talking about Bank wrapped original , or looks like he rolled them himself just to keep them together ? If they are old and original ( OBW's ) then you could be sitting on the mother load , so be careful of what you do with them . post more photos of your inheritance. enjoy them all .  |
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Rest in Peace
10197 Posts |
I must agree with TBop, those coins in pic 1, pic 3 with the copper coins and pic 2 with silvers all look like dug up coins that were put up uncleaned or wrongly gleaned. The light free corrosion is your EXTREME enemy. Separate those coins from the rest, the will infect like a virus. That is called "bronze disease", it is advanced and will affect coins it is with eventually. The process may be inhibited some but never remedied. The silver coins may have hope, the coppers are shot.
The rolls may be what is worthwhile. Depends on what they hold, you say you have silver dollars, show here so we can help assess. But I'm guessing these "drawers and jars" were his junk coin stash, just didn't know how to dispose of them for melt value coins.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
74060 Posts |
To CCF! As a general rule, you're never supposed to clean coins, as it removes the patina from the surfaces, but it's okay to do it on "junk drawer" coins. In this case, it won't make a difference. Errers and Varietys.
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
24885 Posts |
To the Forum. |
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Moderator
United States
188213 Posts |
to the Community! |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
As a start look where you can find a copy of the Red Book by Whitman Publishing. It only covers USA coins though. I will give you an idea of what may be valuable. Next try soaking any coins in Acetone. Available at most hardware or paint stores. What ever does not come off with that, might be to late. If you suspect a coin may be valuable, don't do any more cleaning attempts. For those that may be just sort of regular coins, try a bit of baking soda and distilled water solution and a brief rub with that. So not get carried away with any type of cleaning on coins until you think you know what your doing. Remember to try to look up what any US coins are worth prior to any cleaning attempt. Some people attempt to use almost anything to clean coins. Some of those items ruin the coins values so be careful. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19947 Posts |
All the coins with verdigris (the green stuff) should be isolated from the other coins ASAP. Coins with verdigris provide feed materials which will cause not corroded coins to corrode. As far as attempting to conserve the verdigris infected coins, it's not worth it unless the coin is valuable. Get yourself a Red Book and first determine if you have any key date, high grade or other valuable coins. That's where your efforts should be put for now. Lincoln Cent Lover!VERDI-CARE™ INVENTOR https://verdi.care/
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New Member
36 Posts |
Cleaning will only net you a very few positives.Like date and mintmark and eye appeal.But to the learned eye a cleaned or whizzed coin is as apparent as a holed coin and not eye appealing per say. I have had to do some very minor spot cleaning before and was still able to market them. As far as grading goes you need to decide which notation is worse. Cleaned or Improperly Cleaned. As far as collecting, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder and at least half the fun is the find. Suggestion: consult a professional dealer who can actually lay hands on them so you know whats valuable or not. If there's a $3-4000 coin in there, they can submit them to NGC or PCGS for a professional restoration for you. Don't feel bad, back in the day regular folks didn't know not to clean so my Grandfather cleaned everything even the S VDB as often as he cleaned his car. They are cleaned but they were his and thats what really counts.Good luck to you
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Replies: 13 / Views: 1,878 |
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Posted 09/01/2018 05:29 am
