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 Replies: 7 / Views: 1,374 |
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New Member
United Kingdom
7 Posts |
During some renovations, I came across this coin   I doubt there is any value to it, but was wondering how best to clean this up without causing any damage to it. Seems such a shame not to see it as it should look  |
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Moderator
 United States
34447 Posts |
Quote:
how best to clean this up without causing any damage to it. Hey that is a fun find. From a numismatic sense, you absolutely should not clean this or any other coin. If you do, then it will only be worth silver melt value. "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Moderator
United States
56855 Posts |
 You can try 100% pure acetone,not standard nail polish remover. John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1506 Posts |
You could Google the coin to see it in its glory, but agree that cleaning this one would be a bad idea.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
This coin is only in about good Fine condition, so there is not much to loose in value anyway, if it was cleaned.
If it was my coin I would put it in a standard jewelry silver cleaning solution. I would dip it for short successive periods only rinsing in between, until I was satisfied with the appearance.
If it had been for sale, (rather than being found as this coin was), I would have given it a miss, due to appearance. That would have been behind my decision to clean.
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Moderator
Australia
16868 Posts |
The bottom pic is blurry; I can't tell if it's fire damage, or just heavy tarnish. I don;t think acetone is going to make much difference, in either case.
As a general rule, we do say "don't clean coins", because non-collectors generally aren't very good at deciding what "attractive toning" looks like, and they generally want to polish up every coin they come across unles they're told otherwise.
This specific coin, however, is probably too far gone; I don't think any coin collector would want it in its current state, and even the silver merchants might look askance at it.
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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New Member
 United Kingdom
7 Posts |
Thanks for your replies guys. Although there was a fireplace in the room this was found, I'm not convinced it is fire damage. We discovered it whilst cleaning up after the ceilings had been removed and were lucky not to dispose if it with the rest of the plaster. The ceiling space was absolutely filthy with soot as you may expect from a house built in 1903 with numerous fireplaces... I had some pure acetone and so I tried a cotton wool bud and there was quite a but of black dirt removed. Although I don't want it to look pristine or shiny, I was just cautious and didn't want to cause any unnecessary damage. I'd imagine these are as common as muck (literally in this case) and no intention of selling, so will clean a little more with the acetone until I cannot get any more dirt off with a cotton wool bud and then see what I have. Nice piece of history even if it is worthless |
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Moderator
United States
56855 Posts |
Acetone is ok,but not the cotton wool bud. John1 |
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Replies: 7 / Views: 1,374 |
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Posted 09/04/2022 5:34 pm
