Whizzed,Cleaned,Dipped,What's the Difference?

wjd283

I thought they were all about the same thing?

RGL

Whizzed coins will be severely hairlined from the method of cleaning; cleaning will be less severe, but still result in an unnatural appearance with potential hairlines; dipped can be more difficult, it will not create any hairlines if done right, but can render an unpleasant appearance and unnaturally white if done incorrectly.

ealandg

Hmmm. I think these are varying degrees of harshness. These are my opinions and interpretations of the words:

1. Dipped - gently immersed in something to clean it (usually acetone), quickly removed and often better for the dip.
2. Cleaned - Could be #1, but implies to me that harsher chemicals may have been used, perhaps something with abrasives in it, giving the coin an unnatural, shiny look.
3. Whizzed - The worst - a tool has been taken to the surfaces of the coin to remove a layer of metal, sometimes only in the fields. This is usually the easiest to recognize.

gargoyle62

Has anyone here ever seen a coin that's been dipped in something to make it look copper? I thought coins were only dipped to make them look silver or shinnier silver, but I'm in possesion of a very bright copper (almost gold colored) 1943s. I know this is a fake, I was just wondering how they did it. The 9 and 3 on this coin are also bigger than the 1 and 4. Other than that, it looks pretty real.

mdwoods

It's probably been copper plated.

fcloud

some chemical dips remove some metal. So if someone uses a dip for silver and then dips a copper coin the copper will pickup some of the silver and the color will change. The same for copper to silver and for gold to silver.

The best rule is not to clean coins, and you won't damage them.

gargoyle62

I assumed that copper plating would make the details of the coin less sharp.

DaveG

As far as I'm aware, putting a coin in acetone will not harm the coin and no one I know calls this "dipping".

'Whizzing' means using a power tool (usually a Dremel tool) with a wire brush on it to brush the surface of the coin to imitate the luster of an uncirculated coin. If you see lots of fine parallel scratch marks on a coin, it has been whizzed.

'Cleaning' means abrasive cleaning, either by a mechanical object or a harsh chemical. Coin that have been rubbed with a pencil eraser, baking soda or toothpaste are considered cleaned. If you soak a brown copper cent in Vinegar, it will turn an unnatural shade of orange, for example.

'Dipping' means putting the coin in a mild chemical, (such as "MS-70", I believe). Dipping was originally thought not to harm a coin's surface, although Scott Travers has some electron microscope photos (in his Coin Collector's Survival Manual) that shows the surface damage that dipping does. For example, circulated silver coins that should be gray, but are unnaturally 'white' but don't exhibit the scratch marks of a mechanical object are usually dipped.