jbl

I wonder if any coin collecting expert can offer me some advice on this. My Father-in-law has passed on his small coin collection to us and I would like to add a few bits to it.
Some of the silver coins--shillings/florins etc have been cleaned at some time as they have quite a clean/shiny look to them even though it is clear that they have been in circulation. Others are much duller and have clearly not been cleaned/polished.
So the query is...should the silver coins be polished or not, what is the correct way of keeping them clean ?
Any advice gratefully received.

Cheers

JBL

Coffin Dodger

Don't you dip them in Cillit Bang like on the advert

JPL

Get yourself one of those blue silver cleaning cloths, quick rub, Bob's yer uncle

RA Dunk

how about giving them a buff over with a dremmel or something

TelBoy

JBL, if the'yre properly valuable then the general consensus is don't clean them.

I have a few coin collections and to be honest i think they do look better clean, but then i'm not a purist. But if somebody is going to pay big money for a coin, they'll pay more for a dirty coin which they can then decide what to do with, whereas if it's already been cleaned you can't re-tarnish it authentically. Hope that helps.

TelBoy

Just re-read it and see you mention shillings and florins. They're widely available, so do with them what you want in all honesty. I use Goddard's Silver Dip and an old toothbrush, followed by Cod Cape metal wadding, for what it's worth.

jbl

Thanks all.
There are quite a number of the pre 1920 coins which have quite a high silver content and are worth a bob or two ! I know not to use anything harsh so if I do clean it will only be with a silver cloth and polish. Will consider a little longer, no rush .

Cheers

JBL

Leslie

I was told by an expert that cleaning off the patina devalues the coin considerably.

Les

StickyMicky

I have a small coin collection, nothing valuable, to be honest, its simply stuff i have collected over the past 5 years that has somehow ended up in the till at work, i have some bizare coins from abroad and stuff, i just left mine in a glass of coke for a few days to clean them up


I also have one of them crazy 1 million notes from africa, cant remember what they are called but that is only worth about 34p or something stupid like that

Bubba po

I came across a King George III penny in my shed the other day. It's about 50% thicker than a normal penny and dates to roughly 1806. It's so worn you can hardly make out anything on it, though.

hoskib

iTrader: (1)

have a look on a few coin dealer sites to see if you've got any rare ones in there and if you have don't touch them. buyers like to see toning of the coins and it'll make a big difference to the price.

however if you're just after building up a collection like a run of years or something just for yourself and there's not too much value in them then give them a clean, don't do it too often though as you can lose the features of the coin if you go mad!

i've used a normal metal polish in the past (one from Betterware and an Autoglym tube) on some coins and they've come up brilliantly. especially with the Betterware miracle metal polish, it seems to really deep clean them

oldsplice

A 'cartwheel' penny.

I've got one of those. My dad found it under the windowsill of an old Nat West bank when it was being gutted.

Bubba po

Why are they called that?

oldsplice

Are you taking the pi$$?

Bubba po

Well it hasn't got spokes in it!

oldsplice

I'ts because it was BIG and ROUND!