A thought about cleaning coins....

[Roscue2]

Can't help but notice that around the web many people are tumbling (rotary tumbler) older coins such as wheaties and Buffalo nickels. Now, I can't imagine cleaning wheaties and Buffalo nickels with anything other than some water and a toothbrush. My Dad always taught me that when you clean an old coin with anything other than water and a toothbrush( or the electric method), the coin will loss pretty much all of it's numismatic value. What he says seems to be true because watching some videos on the web has shown me that when you use a tumbler on coins it dings them all over the place.

Just wanted to know what you guys thought about this. It's been bothering me for a while now so I figure I might as well ask. Your responses won't change my mind on the subject. I was just wondering.

 

[ron_c]

The coins that are being cleaned this way are common dates and have little value. Of course, the more valuable coins wouldn't be cleaned like this.

 

[Uncle Willy]

I've been tumbling coins for years and no dings. I don't tumble anything of value. That's a no no.

Bill

 

[deepnails]

Hi Roscue 2, There of course are many ways to clean coins and valuble coins almost never should be cleaned unless done by an expert. One neat way to clean common wheat,indian, and other not so rare coins is to put them in a potato. Just push them in, the amount of time you leave them in depends on the amount of corrosion. This potato method shouldn't be used on pennies with a nice green patina, this will also work on nickel. One thing everyone should know about modern clad is NEVER grind or sand them clean as nickle is extremely caustic, I found this out the hard way. Nickel is poison. My favorite book on cleaning coins is, "Cleaning and Preservation of Coins and Metals", I'm not sure of the authors name something like Welsey or Welsery, I have the book in front of me but the authors name is in cursive it's copywrite is by Sanford J. Durst 1976. This book has information not found in other books such as annealing, a technique used to bring out detail on a coin which appears to be worn smooth. To do this you heat a steel plate to red hot then drop on your coin, because the density is slightly different on the details they will heat up at a slightly different rate and thus become visable. I hope everyone finds a gold coin including me!, Bye, Darryl.