clean your circulated silver bullion?

konsole

What I'm referring to is silver coins that have been heavily circulated and are only worth about their silver content. I know many people hoard these coins as silver investments and was wondering if cleaning them was a good idea. By cleaning I mean using soap or another non-harsh method and remove any surface dirt, hand oil and other foreign material that might degrade the silver content. Or would removing this foreign material expose the silver to more environmental damage?

Broadstruck

They will only retarnish anyway.. and if just bullion no one will pay extra for shinny ones.

jmski52

I've cleaned some coins that were so dirty and/or ugly that they needed help. There's no reason to have ugly silver bullion laying around.

ricko

If you like them shiney... just dip them. Cheers, RickO

konsole

its not so much to make them look better, but to remove material from the coin that might degrade the silver.

DaveG

What do you mean by "degrade the silver"?

PrivateCoinCollector

The only time I bother is when they have tape or the coins feel sticky. I just hate that!

Sotty

I would let them soak in alcohol or acetone for awhile, then blot dry.

bsshog40

I quick dip may help, but I prefer to just let nature takes it's own course with them. Unless there's something corrosive on the silver, I see know need for them to be nice and shiny!!

GoldenEyeNumismatics

Unless you're melting them yourself, and have to deal with removing the slag when pouring a bar, it doesn't matter if their clean or dirty.

57loaded

i have with some junk that was just fugly. MS70 works great with a gentle q-tip application. i don't think it 'de-grades' the silver at all.

acetone won't anything for tarnished silver.

LonerAnger

When I was a kid, there was a store in town that cleaned ALL their coins. Brilliant idea. Everyone in town would exclaim, "Smith & Lang" whenever they got change that sparkled.
And it would circulate quite a while staying shiny so even the other stores had people yellin "Smith & Lang" when they got change.
I'd say that was ...effective... advertising.

But...on topic... no. don't bother.

originalisbest

"Smith & Lang" might've been the cry (in an angry tone) whenever they happened to brighten up a key date some collector had been after!