[DIY] Taking care of your silver

[anorganix]

Hi folks,

Might not be the perfect section to post this in, but here it goes.

I recently had a look at my silver stash and found out that some of them didn't look as good as they did in the glory days.
Spots, stains, slight discoloring etc. Of course, there are multiple factors that can influence this - storage conditions, humidity, temperature, light and so on.

To summarize, I decided to give my "ugly" coins a fresh new look, as they deserve.

What I did:

• use aluminium foil to cover any recipient you want to use
• put sodium bicarbonate on the bottom of the tray
• put the coins/ bullion you want to clean and cover with more sodium bicarbonate
• gently cover everything in (almost) boiling water
• let everything sit for 15-20 minutes

(no, I'm not cooking meth)

After that, use a soft brush to gently clean them, I used something similar to a soft toothbrush to avoid scratches.
If grime or stains are stubborn, you may add some toothpaste and continue cleaning - but make sure it's the white toothpaste, without abrasive particles.

Finally, rinse with warm water and let everything dry in a microfiber towel.
Take a break and repeat the process if needed. End results below.

Not perfect, but for sure better than before. I'm happy with the job.
Hope it helps!

Cheers,
- anx.

[1715184461]

1715184461

[1715184461]

1715184461

[Bullion-n-BTC]

A lot of collectors like the antiquing / toning of the silver but you’re right it’s not for every body. Many collectors would call this “cleaning” though so if you were to ever sell your numismatic pieces such as libertads or ASE I’d be sure to mention that as many believe cleaning destroys the value of a coin. Great stack brother always nice to see a fellow silver stacker

[anorganix]

Yeah, agreed.

It’s a matter of personal preference, I usually like them clean and shiny.
I have a couple which I’m not touching (old, historical coins), but these I decided to do.

Great stack brother always nice to see a fellow silver stacker

Thanks, happy to have you guys around.

[krogoth]

  Thanks for sharing this...they came out very shiny indeed. And yes to each his own.

  I wonder if down the line anyone can tell if a coin was cleaned or not. Is there anyway a person can tell?

[Cryptogreatdane]

Id say cleaning your standard bullion is fine, but anything collectable should not be cleaned. It affects value and they can tell when a coin has been cleaned. I keep all my collectables even my bullion in capsules. Hopefully that will prevent the toning. Nice post though informative. Its nice to see those silver beauties come out shiney.

[OgNasty]

I have used this method in the past with coins.  There's a good video on youtube (probably lots of them) demonstrating this technique.  Sodium bicarbonate, aka baking soda and some aluminum foil do a good job with hot water, but I'm not sure if this is good for all coins.  As has been mentioned, collector pieces should probably never be cleaned.  Obviously you don't want to drop a hologram in there, but if you have some old dirty silver sitting around that is only worth it's spot price weight, cleaning it like this isn't the worst thing.  The preferred method would be to keep them from ever getting tarnished to begin with, but that's not always 100% avoidable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZmXjt5H_q8

[anorganix]

Yep yep, the YouTube vid was actually one that I studied before trying out the “cleaning”.
As for prevention… what would be the best option? I thought that zip-bag would give a decent amount of “protection”, turns out it wasn’t like that.

PS: most of my coins (ie: Silver Pandas, APMEX sealed etc) are looking spot on. I’m assuming it might also have something to do with coin treatment, before it leaves the mint.

[Hookzup1]

Thanks for the info, vacuum sealed in pelican case with moisture absorbing packs works for me on the items that dont fit into a graded slab

[anorganix]

I’m keeping these as they are (at least for now). Will try the pelican/ silica bag trick.
Thanks.

[aoluain]

Very good, and very good results, well done on that.

Yea cleaning high value numismatics is frowned upon generally. The experienced
guys can tell if there was cleaning involved. Some collectors even admire and
actually put a premium on "toning".

https://coinsite.com/why-are-toned-coins-so-much-more-expensive/



Bullion and rounds obviously dont count as they are valuable in weight as OgNasty said.

As regards storage, dont rule out handling ^{skin contact}as a factor for tarnishing
and or toning

[anorganix]

Thanks!

And the skin contact is actually a very good point, nice to see that confirmed.
I am still baffled about how Pandas compare to Silver Eagles when it comes to handling them “under the same circumstances”.

[OgNasty]

Thanks!

And the skin contact is actually a very good point, nice to see that confirmed.
I am still baffled about how Pandas compare to Silver Eagles when it comes to handling them “under the same circumstances”.

Skin contact is probably the #1 cause in my opinion. You can definitely see a huge difference over time no matter how they’ve been stored if one has been touched by human hands directly. I’ve always taken great care to make sure that coins I sell are never touched by human hands but you can never be totally certain what happens at the mint, etc. This is also a reason why I am opposed to coin grading. While I’m sure the grading experts know that touching coins with bare hands is a no-no, you can never be too sure that someone didn’t have a bad day or a moment of laziness while handling your coins.

[SaltySpitoon]

Theres a lot to the chemistry of tarnishing, but in short the main reason silver tarnishes is humidity and sulfur in the air. Its tough to give guarantees on how things will tarnish, but the typical course is if you have a low humidity environment with sulfur and no oils and salts from your grubby hands, you're more likely to produce silver oxide compounds that'll give you that pretty rainbow tarnish you see people selling for too much money. I don't know in particular what the specific chemical reaction is, but if you touch coins when they tarnish they're far more likely to end up black and dirty looking. Morgan silver dollars are really well known for having that pretty tarnish because they were stored for years in bags at banks with desiccants to keep them dry, but the bags were treated with sulfur to keep insects and rats away.

The aluminum foil method you use is sort of the reverse of electroplating. Instead of a plating solution you're creating an electrolyte solution with the baking soda, and theres a difference in electronegativity between silver and aluminum that creates a tiny voltage that makes the sulfur compounds on the surface of your silver break off and form bonds with the aluminum instead of the silver. I don't actually know if thats a good way to clean your coins or not. Its not abrasive, but the reason people don't use chemical dips for example is it will eventually remove the mint finish that comes with the striking process at the mint by their polished steel dies. I've dipped silver coins before melting them in harsh jewelry cleaner and the effects weren't visible. Without spending a lot of time researching exactly what constitutes damage to the finish of a coin removing the sulfur through electrochemistry may or may not do similar damage and it may not be immediate.

[Eclipse33]

Thanks for the info, I have some silverware that I may have to try this with.

[Gatorelf]

Nice collection, I noticed you had a Cuauhtemoc tribute bullion coin.  I collect quite a few of the 1947 & 48 Mexican 5 Peso Cuauhtemoc over the years a 90% silver business strike coins.  I loved the story of the Aztec emperor. If you guys would like to read up on him here is a link below. I had always wondered who that statue was in the center of a huge roundabout in Mexico city. What a figure in history I should have been paying attention in school

 I remember when toned numismatic coins were 15% less in price than the exact same frosty Morgan. I used to buy some of those rainbow toned Morgan's. Now they command 100 to 300% premium lol. I sold a beautiful pink toned Silver Eagle a few weeks ago for a premium.       

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/cuauht-moc-last-aztec-emperor-fight-against-spanish-005435