Is there and safe, non-damaging way to clean up some old coins?
My coin-collecting days are long past, but back then the simple answer to this question was NO. For every coin made more attractive, 1000 are made worse - some dramatically so.
But I’ve heard there may be some advanced techniques that might actually work. If so, I expect someone will be along to describe them. In the mean time, keep your coins untouched.
I’m sure there’s some kind of scientific technique where you can deionize a coin safely somehow. I’m just wondering if there’s something, like a vinegar and baking soda mixture or something that won’t harm the coin.
I’m not a huge collector trying to strike it rich, I just have some old morgans and a few half cents that could use some enhancing.
Here’s the answer and the “why” behind the answer.
Professional coin dealers tell people Do Not Clean Your Coins. I think we are trained to do this.
But for most coins, it just doesn’t matter. Examples:
You have, say, 10 random silver dollars, from the old days when a silver dollar was still in change. The get tarnished, the way silver things do.
You decide to clean them. You use silver paste polish. That’s abrasive. But your dollars are all rather common, in average condition, and you just changed their value from 10 each to 9. each. Big whoop!
BUT…say you had a 1934-S dollar that your Aunt Tilley got in change when she visited California in 1934. She treasured it, and kept it pristine all these years. It’s uncirculated, but tarnished.
If you brought that tarnished, but never cleaned 1934-S silver dollar into our store, we might give you $500-750 for it.
BUT…say you cleaned it with toothpaste or silver polish, or a Brillo pad before you brought it in. You just lowered the value to $50-100.
This is an extreme example, but it shows why we tell people NOT to clean coins.
Most of the time, it just doesn’t matter.
IF you clean copper, you usually turn the color to pink, and that ain’t good as far as dealers or collectors go.
I’ll take questions now.
See above for Morgan Dollar cleaning advice.
For your copper half cents–you can oil them with a drop of three-in-one oil, or a light dab of Vaseline. Just don’t rub them hard. You want to leave the color as original as possible. The oil won’t change the color. Wipe the oil off very gently with a Kleenex.
I have found that you can soak them in amonia and it will remove tarnish pretty well. Do not rub them.
tomato ketchup usually works. But I suppose it all depends on why you want to clean them? Antique coins should be left as they are.
Ok, I noticed in another thread that you are in the coin business. I’d like to know why the 1916-D Mercury Dime is so sought after? I see that over 200,000 were made which is low, but low enough to demand those prices? I have a coin in wonderful condition that is over 100 years older and only 56,000 were minted and it’s not worth nearly as much. Is there something I’m missing? Were a huge amount of those dimes destroyed for some reason?
King Friday If I knew what your coin was, I could probably answer better.
There are obviously two parts to why something has a certain value–supply and demand.
You’re correct–we probably purchase 20-50 pieces of 1916-D dimes in our store in a year. And they sell quite well.
I have no doubt that you have a coind nicer and older, with a lower mintage, and no one cares.
Coins that are collected in series, by date such as mercury dimes and Lincoln cents, etc. , quite often have the key coin in the series command a price that is disproportionate to its rarity.
Coins that are quite rare(like yours) but not collected by date in a series, but are collected by type only don’t command the same price.
Demand overshadows supply in the case of the mercury dime.
Supply overwhelms demand in the case of your scarcer coin.
samclem, what if a collecter used NevrDull to clean their coins? In the museum in which I work, we use this product to clean silver, brass, and other metals because it is completely non-abrasive. (It’s basically cotton soaked in a tarnish-cutting oil.) I must note that I have never used it on copper, so I don’t know what it would do.
I’d strongly suggest to everyone NOT to soak your coins or other metals in any kind of acidic mixture or chemical. A lot of them can eat into the metal, causing pitting.
Sam , I have a penny that’s completely zinc, no copper at all on both sides(1993) in pretty good shape.
What’s the aprox. value?
I think the general answer is: if you don’t know what it’s worth, leave it alone! You can buy old Roman coins on ebay by the bucket. Generally, the instructions that come with them tell you to soak them in Calgon to remove the encrustation. I don’t think this reduces the value, because if you don’t remove the gunk, you can’t see what coin you have, so it’s worth nothing.
samclem is right on the mark with his advice. As to lower minted coins, I have tons of foreign silver that has extremely low mintage (China is known for this), but the value is not proportionate because the market demand is low. The market for American coins has traditionally been high, so even marginally scarce coins can go for a premium.
I have a few mint condition 1938 5-Franc coins that catalog for $85 each. What am I offered? Hello?
If you’re rubbing the coin with a piece of cotton, then that’s actually abrasive, albeit slight and not important on most coins. If your museum housed the finest known 1893-S Morgan silver dollar, which was taken from the mint in that year and placed in the museum collection, it would be worth in excess of $250,000. After you rub it with your cotton-in-oil it would be worth about $100,000. A light oil is what we use on * average* copper coins. It takes off the dull look, but doesn’t change the color. I don’t oil bright, uncirculated copper coins, just worn ones.
Rooves Your unplated zinc cent is probably only worth $5-10 as a novelty. They were worth lots more when they were first found in 1982, when the mint changed over from copper to copper-plated zinc. As more came out, the price fell.
Chefguy said “I have a few mint condition 1938 5-Franc coins that catalog for $85 each. What am I offered? Hello?”
Here we are, back to the demand side of the equation. Not many collectors care.
My point exactly.
Turns out I had two coins confused with each other when I said “over 100 years older”. They are 2 half-cents. 1803 and 1855. The 1855 has the mint total of 56,000.
Two things: VERY few people collect half cents by date anymore. So, the last type of half cent, minted in the late 1840’s-1857, are collected only by TYPE. And the aggregate population is not low. And, because the half cent was discontinued in 1857, those last 10 years or so were pulled out of change early in their circulation life. The usually come in decent condition.
The 1916-D dime, on the other hand, is collected by a disproportionate number of collectors. They are the mindless ones who need to fill up every slot in the book, even though every one of their dimes look the same. And, in 1916, in the area served by the Denver mint, very few collectors existed. And they didn’t/couldn’t put away quantities of the newly designed dime. On the East Coast, there were many collectors and people who put away the more plentiful(then and now) Philadelphia mint version. So, the Denver specimens circulated and circulated hard. Money was for spending. Same went for the San Francisco mint coin that year. Very few saved in brand new condition.