To Clean Or Not To Clean - This Is The Question

[Swampstomper Al]

On 1/13/2019 at 1:42 PM, Cabin Fever said:

If your not worried about degrading value, a simple Pink Eraser is very easy on coins. Go very lightly on silver coins or it might shine them up a little more then you might want.

Bryan

Thanks for posting in this thread, Cabin.. I was trying to find an old thread where we were talking about cleaning coins cos I wanted to credit the person (you, as it turns out) who mentioned erasers -- but couldn't find that post..

I have a lot of artist supplies, mainly photograph / negative dyes and pencils accumulated during years in the now mostly obsolete industry.. I also have many different types of erasers but not a large pink one, since those are the ones found on the end of most pencils..

During the previous thread I found your eraser solution interesting so deceided to give it a try on IHPs I'd taken as far as I could this side of ultrasonic, caustics and/or oil.. This is when I discovered I didn't have a large pink eraser in my arsenal and also discovered they'd just break off the end of pencils due to amount of pressure needed (I could have made it work using vice grips or hemostats, but having others to test saved it for a last attempt if necessary..)

Out of all the others, which included plastic, gum, vinyl, magic rub, kneedgummi, an unknown substance containing erasing fluid and a few others unidentified beyond 'eraser', the only one that worked, and worked quite well, is the PaperMate Union ink on one end pencil on the other end eraser (other name brands omitted intentionally..)

It took a lot of elbow grease, but I eventually got the one I worked on 98% clean and I could have gotten the remainder if I worked some more on those recessed areas.. The price one pays is yeah, they become really shiny.. But I've been letting it sit out, putting it in with change etc. etc. and it's toning back down kinda quickly..

I only tried this on the one copper.. I'm fairly certain the ink side would be damaging to 'silver' coins and the pencil side will leave "rings around the stars" while making the rest of those coins too shiny.. But I still have a bunch of other erasers to try, if I want to give other than copper a go..

One other thing I noticed: As easily as new "copper" coins scratch even with new soft cloths, old copper coins stand up to just about whatever you throw at them eraserwise.. I couldn't notice anything that stood out above what was already there..

Point being, between these two types of erasers ( EDIT: and the hydrogen peroxide ) a person can most likely do a durn good job at cleaning up other-than-numismatic-value copper coins..

Swamp 

EDIT: This references your first reply only..

[Cabin Fever]

I like the simple pink eraser and use the sharp edge on them to get into the details. You can see the groves in the middle where I clean the edge of the coins.

 

[Tiftaaft]

7 hours ago, Cabin Fever said:

I like the simple pink eraser and use the sharp edge on them to get into the details. You can see the groves in the middle where I clean the edge of the coins.

 

I dug one of these a few weeks ago at an Elementary school...  next to a pencil (must have been the lead in the pencil that rang in at a solid 12 ? haha) .  But I had no idea I was digging a coin cleaner!  Can't wait to try it t!  Thanks for the tip Bryan.  ~Tim

[Lobo Lover]

     Well all this wonderful advice and a true concern for preservation of coins is starting to overwhelm me I think but I'm sticking with Ron deathray's friend. "I like them shinny".

     So I have now taken up DIY Alchemy and Metallurgy and have begun to make every penny pay for it's self by way of an auction. If you wish to purchase any of my Pirates Treasures please bid on them at Trademe NZ. The rest of some of my not so precious coins have found there way to the smelting pot and have begun a new life as ornaments. 

        I thank everyone who participated in this discussion and very much appreciated  your advice on cleaning coins. I will from now only refer to a coins in there oxidised condition as Toning thanks to Swapstomper Al. 

 

[Lobo Lover]

       With the wealth of information that I have read here, from such knowledgeable and interested people in coin preservation. I have now invested in some new equipment mainly the Ultrasonic Cleaner. In fear of inflicting any damage to the coin and after reading what Swampstopper Al mentioned and suggested.                                          He's right, "I just can not leave those coins alone." So we've bought a couple of extra items and acquired a good camera for those close up pictures. So if strick is reading this just get yourself a used Samsung ST50 or along those lines, their quite cheap after being 15 years old now. The picture quality is great, easy to use and I think it has about 12.2 Mega Pixels.  I Also recommend a free picture viewer which allows me to crop and enlarge with very little ease, so try using Irfan I'm sure you will be impressed with it. I will leave you nice people with a few pictures of detector finds and were taken with our used Samsung ST50 cropped and enlarged with Irfan.

                                                       All the Best,

                                                                            L.L.

[Cal_Cobra]

I've found several key date silver coins over the years, and a rare gold coin, but I don't really ever plan to sell my coins I've found..

If they already have environmental damage, I try to make them "presentable".  Depending on their condition, I may do anything from a simple light baking soda rub, to Ezest.  True once you clean them you cannot go back, but on the other hand, if you never plan to sell them, and want to enjoy them, do as you please in my opinion.

The best preserved silver coin I've ever found was a 1906-S Barber dime at a park demo in San Francisco several years ago.  As soon as I popped it out of the ground, I couldn't believe how pristine it was, it looked like it was dropped the day it was minted. I did nothing but rinse it off with water to clean it. I had some free PCGS gradings and decided to send it in with some other coins for grading. Not only did it not get a cleaned or environmental damage label, it came back graded as a MS60, common date, but at that condition it's a $300 coin.  Bummer none of the key date silvers I've dug were that clean, but it is what it is.  At the end of the day, if you really think about it, the odds are so stacked against us to even find a key date coin to begin with it's staggering, add to that the likelihood of environmental damage and when you finally do find a nice one, it's like winning the lottery!

[GB_Amateur]

It's interesting what motivates detectorists -- there are so many possibilities.  Like you, I get excited with the date+MM opportunities, realities, and sheer anticipation.  For me that came from being introduced to coin collecting by my family (mother and uncles) when I was 6 years old.  I never lost the thrill of the find.

6 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

At the end of the day, if you really think about it, the odds are so stacked against us to even find a key date coin to begin with it's staggering....

I've wondered about that myself.  However, there are some things going for us.  One is that when these coins were lost there weren't coin collectors (or at least not many) cherry picking the scarce and rare dates.  Secondly (and this is just wild speculation), when you try and answer the question "where did all the minted coins go?" the answer seems to be weighted towards 'lost'.  Thirdly, and this is where you Western US detectorists have some edge, is that coins weren't uniformly distributed after being minted.  They tend towards regional distribution.  The scarcer coins tend (but of course not always) to be from the San Francisco and Carson City mints, at least compared to Philadelphia and New Orleans.  Early Denver coins were more scarce than later when they eventually surpassed Philadelphia.  You can even go so far as to say that scarce -S and -CC issues were common in certain locales because that is where they were selectively sent and circulated.

I don't know how many Lincoln cents I've searched in my lifetime, both from pocket change and bank rolls.  WAG is over 100,000.  But the scarcest Lincoln I've (yet) found was last summer in the back yard of a house built in the 1950's -- a 1924-D.  I've found less than 200 Wheaties (less than 1000 cents total) metal detecting so far.  Yes, it could be randomness but I think it's more than that.  I know that find pales in comparison to some of yours, but be careful to look over your shoulder because I'm not giving up.  ?

Ok, enough rambling.  It's over 40 F and sunny with no wind.  There's a rare coin out there waiting for me and maybe today is my day!

[Cal_Cobra]

On 2/26/2019 at 10:28 AM, GB_Amateur said:

It's interesting what motivates detectorists -- there are so many possibilities.  Like you, I get excited with the date+MM opportunities, realities, and sheer anticipation.  For me that came from being introduced to coin collecting by my family (mother and uncles) when I was 6 years old.  I never lost the thrill of the find.

I've wondered about that myself.  However, there are some things going for us.  One is that when these coins were lost there weren't coin collectors (or at least not many) cherry picking the scarce and rare dates.  Secondly (and this is just wild speculation), when you try and answer the question "where did all the minted coins go?" the answer seems to be weighted towards 'lost'.  Thirdly, and this is where you Western US detectorists have some edge, is that coins weren't uniformly distributed after being minted.  They tend towards regional distribution.  The scarcer coins tend (but of course not always) to be from the San Francisco and Carson City mints, at least compared to Philadelphia and New Orleans.  Early Denver coins were more scarce than later when they eventually surpassed Philadelphia.  You can even go so far as to say that scarce -S and -CC issues were common in certain locales because that is where they were selectively sent and circulated.

 

I think you're exactly right.  I found a low mintage U.S. gold coin, PCGS reports less than 100 known to exist, but how many of those were either melted down or are 8" deep in the dirt.  Living on the left coast, I've definitely noticed that we're lucky to find a predominate amount of S minted seated and barber coins, which often have a higher value then their counterparts from other mints.  Although I've dug several 1916S Mercury dimes,  I did (finally) bag a 1916D Mercury dime in San Francisco ? 

I think CC issues are still not common anywhere.  I've dug a CC seated quarter and several seated dimes, but so far, they've all been common dates ?  My buddy dug an 1849D U.S. $5 gold coin at an old trading post site we detected.

[GB_Amateur]

1 hour ago, Cal_Cobra said:

I did (finally) bag a 1916D Mercury dime in San Francisco

That's a great find!  Imagine how many bank rolls of dimes you would have had to search in the early 1960's (before silver coins were Hoovered out of circulation) to get that.

Although I'm suspicious of the low survival estimate reports by PCGS, even if they're wrong by a factor of 10 it still means they aren't in the hands of collectors and that doesn't leave many 'places' for them to be.  We know where they are globally (i.e. in the ground).

BTW, I failed to mention how impressive your MS-60 grade from PCGS for a coin that you found in the ground.  (I wouldn't get it regraded if I were you. ?)  You must have quite a collection of coins recovered to have so many rare finds.  Good stuff and I look forward to your next discovery.