question on cleaning with baking soda

sinin1

I had some barbers with AU/MS detail but no luster at all


just 'blast white' whatever that means



someone told me they where cleaned with baking soda and not worth much


how do you clean with baking soda?


dump it straight on the coin?
mix it with water and dip it in the solution?


anyone done this before and does it ever work and make the coin look better?

billboat

You put it in water--about one half tablespoon--after you've been eating Mexican or Italian and drank a lot--it really helps with heartburn. Coins, however, really don't like it that much.

streeter

It's a great way to take a hundred dollar coin and make it worth about $25.

Leaves really beautiful scratches that cannot be detected by bad photos on ebay. I've bought my share.

Can not recommend the experience.

ccr

It leaves a nasty film on silver. Might be fine as a substitute for common silverware but not coins. It`s a bad idea for use on coins.

sinin1

I do not understand how baking soda can leave scratches - was it used with a toothbrush or something to cause the scratches?

I understand how it can lower the value of top dollar coins - does it strip off a layer of silver taking away the luster?

RobJ

Use only on proof Kennedy's

19Lyds

<< <i>I do not understand how baking soda can leave scratches - was it used with a toothbrush or something to cause the scratches?

I understand how it can lower the value of top dollar coins - does it strip off a layer of silver taking away the luster? >>



Baking soda is NOT a course powder but not a fine powder either and it is a bit gritty. It leaves minute hairline scratches that are clearly visible with a 5x loupe. Looks great to an amateur but like doo-doo to a collector. Typically, a baking soda paste is made up and rubbed on the coin. It cleans up the silver but damages the coin in the process. For this, a toothbrush is not needed.

BS cleaned coins cannot be considered "Blast White" as all of the "blast" gets rubbed off leaving just dull dingy white.

Stay away from the BS, far far away...............

MrSpud

If you make a thick paste with baking soda by mixing it with a little bit of water and rub it into a coin with your finger in a circular fashion it abrasively whizzes a coin. I did it once to a coin that a friend gave me just to see what it would look like. The coin was a proof Roosevelt from a proof set he had left in a moist fireproof safe. It had black corrosion spots all over it. The baking soda sanded the spots off but left it full of fine hairlines. Then I AT'd it blue. It doesn't look too bad, unless you hold it at certain angles. I'd never sell it or anything like that. I just like to experiment so I can learn to detect Doctored coins.

nankraut

Baking Soda is Bad Stuff when used on coins----don't do it.

Outhaul

<< <i>Use only on proof Kennedy's >>


Or Frankies...or Ikes...or SBA's (can't make THOSE much uglier)...