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Rehabilitating a cleaned coin?
MojaveGhost
Posts: 65 ✭✭
Would carrying this coin around for a few months as a pocket piece be helpful or an exercise in futility?
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MojaveGhost
Posts: 65 ✭✭
MojaveGhost
Posts: 65 ✭✭
MojaveGhost
Posts: 65 ✭✭
Comments
Try cleaning in the opposite direction. Just like putting a rare Ferrari in reverse on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Would make a decent fidget Spinner AKA pocket piece.
As for time, think longer term and what are you really looking to accomplish?
What don't you like about it, @MojaveGhost?
Looks like an honest VF. If it's cleaned or wiped it's not especially distracting for a lower grade like that. "Market acceptable" or close to it.
Making it a pocket piece would definitely remove much of the oxidation present and give it a lightly polished look. That oxidation will take another 10 or 20 years to come back, if it does.
This one I'd say leave it alone.
--Severian the Lame
Pay no attention to those who mock. You won't learn if you don't ask.
I'm unaware of methods to reverse cleaning damage. It's still a neat coin.
Ultimately I'd like to upgrade. I'm new to coins, but want to create a decent collection of Morgan dollars. The coin you see was part of an inheritance.
You can wear it down and it won't be cleaned anymore. You have to be careful. Pocket pieces can end up looking polished.
It really depends on hairlines. If it's just cleaned, it'll "dirty up" pretty easily. If it is hairlined, you have to wear the surface down below the hairlines. That can take a long time and you run the risk of getting a polished look.
I know a guy who has gotten cleaned coins straight graded by dirtying them up with a combination of handling and actual grime with an occasional chemical thrown in. But, like all such activity, amateur hands are more likely to make it worse.
I don't like the lack of crustiness, for lack of a better term.
What do you think of my leaving it on a sunny window sill? Would that accelerate matters, or is it considered a form of doctoring?
First you have to see exact what you have. To achieve this, let overnight on 30 to 35% sulfuric acid. the rinse in water and then boil 2 min. in an 45% boric acid. After just rinse in very hot water. You will see at this point any details of your coin and any remaining luster. I will not right down the ways to repolish an coin because it is under museums copyrights and forbiden to diffuse.
NEVER ARGUE WITH AN IDIOT.
FIRST THEY WILL DRAG YOU DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL.
THEN, THEY WILL BEAT YOU WITH EXPERIENCE.
MARK TWAIN
Good advice, and thank you kindly.
I'm with @Weiss on this one ... it still looks pretty wholesome (not entirely, but not bad at all), and wrong moves could easily make it worse.
That said, an acetone bath, a kraft coin envelope and a SW facing windowsill ... and quite a bit of patience ... could ... could improve the overall look.
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
the contrast between the obverse's "shading" in the toning (high points flattened and a lighter shade than the neighboring metal)
and
the reverse's mostly similarly colored and yet lusterlessness look
I think the contrast will always be there, and even if you could get the color off the obverse, there will still be a contrast between the obverse and reverse surfaces
don't waste your time on it
Based on my experience, carrying it with other pocket change will give it a burnished or polished look. Also, hairlines from a cleaning will still remain in the protected areas of the coin design. I suggest putting it in an old kraft paper coin envelope and place it in a warm area of your home and hope some natural toning from the sulfur in the paper hides the effects of the cleaning. Unfortunately, this is a slow process and it will take several months or even years. Please let us know what you decide to do and how it turns out.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
I see you have a ton of good replies to your question. Good luck.
If your plan is to upgrade anyway, I’d probably just sell it as is; it appears to be a decent album coin of a better date Morgan. Any doctoring probably won’t increase the value much anyway.
If you think you may wind up keeping it, then I like the idea of keeping it in a warm environment with exposure to a sulfur source, like cardboard or the aforementioned Kraft envelope.
Could be a new VAM. I don't see that reverse crack listed anywhere.
USAF veteran 1984-2005
I didn't pull the plastic slide out far enough when I took the photo, so that's what you're seeing on the far right side of the reverse.
I'm not going to be selling it any time soon. It's the only 1895 O in my collection and I don't have enough experience to replace it intelligently and won't for at least a year. So, I'll be taking everyone's excellent advice and storing it in a Kraft envelope on a sunny window sill. Thank you.
@Weiss
Is market acceptable still a thing?
Used to play golf with a dealer who kept a couple cleaned coins in his pocket with grimy wheat cents. Used them for ball markers and just carried them until they looked better. Would always be interested in what he was using as a marker when we played. An S VDB, 16-D dime etc and no he never lost one. At least that he admitted.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Hmm. So maybe put it in an envelope then play a lot of golf on sunny days, leave it in the envelope when marking your ball?
(Not mocking, just being silly.)
I once had a buff come back AU details cleaned. It wasn't hairlined, just had a surface that looked maybe a little too shiny. I rolled it around in a bag of wheat cents for a while then it graded AU53.
I kinda wish I still had that one, I liked it.
Collector, occasional seller
This is an example of the kind of patina I wish the 1885 O had.
I know it won't get there, but maybe I can achieve some color, particularly on the reverse. I agree with MsMorrisine that it's probably a waste of time, but since there's no labor involved I may as well go for it.
This coin looks more cleaned than yours.
Maybe it was cleaned and then retoned, but if I have to have a low grade coin I do like that circulation cameo look.
Circam looks good when it’s still wholesome, the example you just posted looks like it was completely stripped at one point with no originality left. You don’t want the fields to be stripped white, you want them to look like this with the brownish tinge.
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I had some old coin envelopes from my Gimbels coin buying days that made of “sulfur UN-free paper.” I stuck some cleaned copper and silver coins in them. It took three to five years, but after that treatment, they looked okay. Unfortunately hairlines from cleaning are forever unless you wear the coin down.
Thanks for pointing that out. I have a lot to learn, obviously.
This will definitely be an exercise in patience.
Except when I was a dealer, buying and selling for me is a glacial process. The coins were ready to go before I was ready to make them gone.
Smart. I consigned my dupes thinking it was a clever way to buy more coins and there are a few that I now really regret letting go.
You want to watch it real close if you do that, terminal toning can set in real quick, I've see these go black real quick.