A Good Example Of NCS Helping An Otherwise Ugly Coin

My GUESS is the company would dip it to "restore" luster. Although they accept "properly" dipped coins and will grade them, a dipped coin beside a truly MS-mint luster coin is discernible. Try it. They both are beautiful, but the dipped one has a less "silver" colored hue to it and is more "white."

They also would likely remove the dark spots. A technique for this is using an acetone rinse first, then xylene if the acetone did not remove it. If this does not work and its a caked on substance, it likely can be removed with a device not hard enough to scratch the silver. Some people here use toothpicks, rose bush thorns, or porcupine quills ( ebay - cheap).

Some also use diluted MS70 or diluted E-Z-EST on a Q-tip to try to only affect the stained areas. Again - patience, and caution thinking about not-over applying chemical to quickly is needed.

If you PRACTICE on melt value silver, you will find its not all that dificcult.

We see sulfuric acid and thiourea in small amounts so E-Z-est will work better on copper oxides and possibly? silver sulfides as is this dime. I agree a light brush with a Q-Tip but we are then left with black patch if the sulfide has eaten into the coin - may not be the case with gold and red spots (CuO) - not sure I do not own much gold that ever needed cleaning.

See my discussion in the Main Forum under ultrasonic cleaning - however I have not been able to remove silver sulfide AT ALL with water and hydrogen peroxide in a Magnasonic cleaner but its been successful on deep green verdigris - but again - spots of the damage are seen in particular on MS coppers - of course. Still green verdigris is less desirable visually than a blackspot in particular within copper coins AU Brown and below.
I do use my JPL coin care Freon-TF derivative product on copper then go from there ... cleaning copper is COMPLEX.

John Lorenzo
Numismatist
United States