Silverseeker
Full Member
I recently dug a seated half in horrible condition. After checking it carefully, I was able to determine it was 1854 with no chance of being a key date, or even a semi key. So I gave myself the green light to make this a cleaning project. Here is the beast when I dug it. It appears as though it was against some other metal that corroded into it for 130 years.
I started with Wrights silver cream and Q tips, which usually works beautifully on silver coins. Carefully done, I can leave the patina intact and the coin looking great. But this coin had cancer... really bad cancer. here's how it looked after that.
I wasn't satisfied with this thing yet, and I was beginning to think it was uncleanable. After a few days of deciding whether to leave it or go aggressive and chance ruining it, I decided to take it a step further. First, I soaked it in lemon juice over night. This did nothing. Next I tried something I've never considered doing to a silver coin.... 000 steel wool. I gently removed the corrosion with the steel wool and uncovered a beautiful coin, taking care not to polish it too much or leave scratches in the silver.
As you can see, I didn't leave much of a patina behind. This was the price I had to pay to get the cancer off. I never recommend such harsh cleaning and this is the first time I've even considered it myself. But in this one case, I believe I have taken a coin with no numismatic value and made it something to be proud of.
I started with Wrights silver cream and Q tips, which usually works beautifully on silver coins. Carefully done, I can leave the patina intact and the coin looking great. But this coin had cancer... really bad cancer. here's how it looked after that.
I wasn't satisfied with this thing yet, and I was beginning to think it was uncleanable. After a few days of deciding whether to leave it or go aggressive and chance ruining it, I decided to take it a step further. First, I soaked it in lemon juice over night. This did nothing. Next I tried something I've never considered doing to a silver coin.... 000 steel wool. I gently removed the corrosion with the steel wool and uncovered a beautiful coin, taking care not to polish it too much or leave scratches in the silver.
As you can see, I didn't leave much of a patina behind. This was the price I had to pay to get the cancer off. I never recommend such harsh cleaning and this is the first time I've even considered it myself. But in this one case, I believe I have taken a coin with no numismatic value and made it something to be proud of.
