Can you clean morgan silver dollars

Many will even turn their noses up at a rare, cleaned coin from the s or early s if a more expensive, original version is available or soon might be.

Sometimes, cleaning coins does much more than remove its original coloration. In fact, in most cases, anything more than a simple surface rinsing with water to dislocate loose debris will actually remove tiny bits of metal from the coin. Abrasive coin cleaners, such as baking soda, toothpaste, jewelers rouge, and acids will literally remove the upper surface of the coin, leaving it in an irreparable state.

Coins cleaned in such an abusive manner have an unnatural reflectivity, and upon close inspection with a magnifying glass countless striations and hairlines can be seen scarring the surface. Sometimes these hairlines will be evident with the naked eye. Ultimately, the thrust of this message is to encourage coin collectors to avoid cleaning their coins. No matter how alluring the label on the package reads, my advice is to steer clear of these products or exercise extreme caution if you insist on trying one or the other brands out there.

While it is certainly true that a quick dip of a fraction of a second may not cause too much obvious damage, it will still remove some metal, no matter how slight. Dipping, even for a millisecond, will reduce or eliminate these flow lines. The coin will also lose its natural mint-made lustre. Remember also that the longer the dip the more the potential damage. It can, and usually does, turn an OK coin into a dog.

The dipping does not last forever as we shall soon see. Morgan silver dollar without any evidence of even a slight bit of toning? These coins are well over years old and, except for the hoards released by the U. Treasury about 50 years ago, it is virtually impossible for any silver coin that old to be as bright and shiny as the day it fell off the coining press. The answer is a quick dip. Toning is a natural phenomenon to any silver item, including coins.

No matter how careful grandma was with her silver place setting and no matter how carefully it might have been wrapped, toning occurs and the silver cleaner comes out. As to the dipping not lasting forever, I personally have witnessed many coins that turned dark or had black specks and spots in a relatively short period of time.

One incident in particular is the sad story of a group of commemorative coins I dispatched to a major grading service in the states. Simply let the coin air dry. Pour your distilled white vinegar into your shallow bowl.

There should be enough vinegar to completely cover your coins. Gently place your coin or coins into the vinegar. Let your coins sit for at least 30 minutes. If your coins are especially dirty, you can let them set in the vinegar overnight. Remove the coins from the vinegar and gently rinse with distilled water. Remember to use distilled water, not tap water! Clean the coins with warm, soapy water and lay them out on a soft cloth to dry.

This method is a natural cleaner for silver that is similar to using a silver polish yet with ingredients you can find in your kitchen. It is also ideal for cleaning tarnish off of sterling silver. To clean silver jewellery with baking soda or to get your really dirty coins clean, cover the bottom of a dish with a sheet of aluminum foil that is smaller in size than the container and pour boiling water into the dish. Sprinkle some baking soda into the water and then add the coins.

Make sure that the silver coins do not touch any area of the foil. After the coins are clean, remove them from the baking soda water, rinse them with fresh water, and set them aside to dry. An acidic liquid, lemon juice helps to break down any grime and dirt that has built up on your coins.

While this method is not recommended for collector coins, it works quite well at cleaning keepsake coins, bringing back their silver shine. Mix equal parts distilled water and lemon juice into a container.

Soak the coins in the lemon solution for up to one hour. Remove the coins and dump out the lemon solution, and then pour the olive oil and one teaspoon of lemon juice into the container. Add the coins and place the heat-safe container into a larger container of near-boiling water.

Remove the coins from the warm bath and wash them with soapy water. Allow them to air dry. If you have never seen a coin cleaned by electrolysis, then you may be shocked and amazed the first time you do. You can watch the tarnished coin turn from hazy brown to shiny silver before your eyes in mere seconds. While many people opt to use table salt for this method, we do not recommend it. When table salt is added to the electrolytic solution, it can create a chemical reaction and release chlorine gas.

Place a sheet of aluminum foil that is larger than the silver coin into the bottom of the pan. Fill the glass pan with water, add a sprinkling of baking soda, and place the coin onto the center of the aluminum foil and watch as the tarnish disappears.

Remove the silver coin and rinse away the residue. Silver polish is an excellent tool for cleaning tarnished silver coins that are meant to be keepsakes but is not recommended for use on rare coins. The abrasives and acids in the polish may damage the collectible value of those types of silver coins.