Advice Needed on Cleaned Shiny Barber Half

OnlyBuffalos

About a year ago I began collecting Barber half dollars. Not knowing better, one of my first purchases was a cleaned half in AU condition. It is a bright shiny chrome color, totally unnatural looking. For the past year it has been sitting in an old 2x2 tan envelope. Hasn't changed a bit. My first impulse is to carry it around in my pocket until the chrome look disappears. My fear is that it may look worse than ever.

Has anyone had a similar predicament? What did you do that removed the cleaned look? What didn't work?

Thanks.

tjkillian

Since you cannot change the past, I would chalk it up to a inexpensive lesson. Since it is water under the bridge, yes, go ahead and carry it around in your pocket and see how wear changes the look of the coin. I would also consider keeping it as a reminder on what coins SHOULD NOT look like.

Tom

Bulldog

Good advice TJ.

Education aint free!

Bulldog

dorkkarl

common problem. coin was likely polished, so some of the residue is still on the coin, keeping the chemical in the paper from tarnishing the surfaces. you must dip that puppy heavily to strip all the crud off, then let that puppy tone back in the envelope. better yet, wrap it up in cheap-quality construction paper - i've used that trick w/ coins that were hosed.

see my other posts following up on coin-dr tech's.

K S

ARCO

There was an article in the BCCS a few years back about a collector who found that placing a coin on wood...not sure what kind and placing it in a window sill for 3 weeks or so, helped to retone the coin a bit. I havent tried it as I usually take a ball peen hammer and smash the hell out of any cleaned coins as they disgust me so much. LOL

Tyler

MastaHanky

Any way you look at it, you're still going to be able to tell if the coin has been cleaned.

I think the best solution is to actually keep it as a pocket piece until the portion that has been cleaned has worn down.

Obviously you're going to lose a full grade (or possibly more), but I'd rather have a VF-35 coin than an AU-50 that was obviously cleaned.

jimtre

Gee sorry about your bummer.

I have to tell you my tale about my first Barber Half. Sometime in the 70's a few coins were advertised in the local newspaper. I went and looked at them (I knew squat about most coins) and he wanted $40 for a few coins and included was a $20 bill.

The one coin I remember was the Barber half but it had been laying on velvet in a jewlery case and had developed this ugly color (it is now called toning). I don't even remember the other coins.

Well, since it had a $20 bill I figured I couldn't go that wrong, so I bought them.

The more I got to looking at the Barber Half the more I realized it was actually nice (under that ugly
er I mean toning). So I dipped it. WoW! What a beauty! Since I wasn't into barber halfs I remember selling it to a dealer at a show the next year and as I recall I received $170 for it.

Of course I sure wished I had it now!

Jim