Cleaning it makes them worse,What am I doing wrong?

ProfitOfDoom · Mar 13, 2007

I was searching my yard some,and I found a sweet spot in the yard,came up with my 2nd wheaty

And possibly a silver dime?
But I got all my coins that I found so far,and put some dish soap in a bowl hot water,and just let them sit for awile,,then I pulled them out. They looked worse now then they did,alot of them turned green and the others were just unreadable.
What should I be doing?

OZ_IL · Mar 13, 2007

ProfitOfDoom said:
I was searching my yard some,and I found a sweet spot in the yard,came up with my 2nd wheaty
And possibly a silver dime?
But I got all my coins that I found so far,and put some dish soap in a bowl hot water,and just let them sit for awhile,,then I pulled them out. They looked worse now then they did,a lot of them turned green and the others were just unreadable.
What should I be doing?

What kind of soap? I just tumble mine and use a touch of palmolive. I assume the wheaties were not key dates so clean or uncleaned they are mostly worth melt value? If your dime is pre-1965 than it is silver, otherwise clad. I've only had to clean a war nickel, for that I used a toothbrush and soap. Silver usually comes out of the ground nice and clean.

ProfitOfDoom · Mar 13, 2007

The wheaties one was a 1930 the other was a 50 something.
The dime is a 1946 the back of it looks nice the front on the face has a slight black tarnish ring.
I also was just looking another dime I found today is a 66 and this one like turned red.
The soap im using is Ajax antibacterial dish liquid.

dondef · Mar 13, 2007

what was the last year wheats were made?

ProfitOfDoom · Mar 13, 2007

I have no idea,,,im new to this,.,,,but just now looking at my finds in my yard today,I discovered I have 3 more wheats,but there all green now and cant read the dates. Jeeze!
I guess I screwed up royally

booker · Mar 13, 2007

1909 was the last year --- the second part of the year links came out

OZ_IL · Mar 13, 2007

ProfitOfDoom said:
The wheaties one was a 1930 the other was a 50 something.
The dime is a 1946 the back of it looks nice the front on the face has a slight black tarnish ring.
I also was just looking another dime I found today is a 66 and this one like turned red.
The soap im using is Ajax antibacterial dish liquid.

Tarnished or toned? Some people prefer toned coins! As to the clad, who cares how pretty it looks? Just clean them up enough to be accepted into society 8) I suggest looking through this forum as there have been many solutions to cleaning coins, but again, check the date as you don't want to try and clean anything of value. Wheat dates run from 1909 to 1958.

Here's a good site about coins and numbers minted: http://www.coinfacts.com/

ProfitOfDoom · Mar 13, 2007

These are the best pics I can get with my camera.
The dimes are on the right,the cleaner one I think is silver,and the other is the red dime?

tritch · Mar 25, 2007

Last year for wheats was 1958.

JimInPhilly · Mar 29, 2007

Hey POD,
For your silver dime I would just get a little wet baking soda and give it a little rub. The red dime will never get its luster back , since the clad surface is worn off..
Sometimes nothing can save a pitted coin , no matter what you do. Copper does not react well to water,. I would soak your pennies in hot peroxide..

Heres how i do it... Get some household first aid 3% peroxide and a small plastic container. I use a little iced tea scoop... I will fill the container 3/4 with peroxide ,, microwave the peroxide (NOT THE COIN) ..for 30 seconds...Then remove and put the coin in the hot peroxide.. (BE CAREFULL ITS HOT),,let it fizzle as long as it wants,,, take it out and try to remove the crud with a Q-tip.. Repeat as many times as needed. It may be time consuming . but its the best way Ive found yet..Ill post some before and after pics of my coppers when I get a chance.

Good luck

Remember , dont clean a coin if you think its valuable.

booker · Mar 29, 2007

Sorry gave the wrong year on the wheats --Must have been the drugs :lol:

Rhubarb · Apr 2, 2007

ProfitofDoom,

This is how I "BATHE" my Lincoln's up to 1981. Since the mint changed the composition of the lincoln during 1982.

This isn't cleaning, cleaning isn't acceptable for a coin that's worth any value.(As Jim Noted in his post) I will "Boil water in a Porcelean Lined Pan using a Colender to put the coin's in. When the coin's in the colender and water are boiling add 2 tablespoon's of "Baking Soda" Gently stir with a wooden spoon during this process. Let tem boil for aprox. 10-15 minute's. When you see the baking soda turn color or see dark spot's in the foam you know you are bathing the coin's. Remember PORCELEAN. Stainless Steel Pan's tend to turn the Copper Coin's a different color. Mostly a darker color.

Perhap's this will help.

Rhubarb

chopz54 · Apr 20, 2007

Check these before and afters out. vaseline!!!!

Keeps the patina ( love that word!!!)

chopz54 · Apr 20, 2007

Well I like them. Chop

booker · Apr 20, 2007

Nice job on the coins Chop

chopz54 · Apr 20, 2007

booker said:
Nice job on the coins Chop

Hi Booker, yeh, I know I said I like them green, But it really brings out the detail. Heres another one.Still need a bit more vaso- applying. Chop

booker · Apr 20, 2007

Do you let them set or rub it on and then rub it off?

Xray · Apr 21, 2007

I don't think you are doing anything wrong per se.
The purpose of a quick cleaning on a keeper coin is just to get the majority of crud off and hopefully to get a readable date.
For that purpose, I use a little jar of soap and water with a couple caps of lemon juice and a toothbrush. Dunk, scrub, dry, repeat as necessary.
Most coins, especially non silver, you are never going to get looking like they did before they went underground. They are what they are, old peices of metal that have been undergound for years, and no amount of attempted cleaning will restore them.
Soaking in olive oil for weeks and months sometimes helps, and will not physically or chemically damage the coin, unlike almost every other cleaning method.

Clad, such as the red dime, is worth very little effort to restore.
When I get a large enough pile I tumble them to make them presentable before returning them to circulation, which I would recommend to everyone who digs up coins.
I have received coins in change that were obviously dug up and no effort at all was made to clean them up, and I must say that this leaves me with feelings of slight disdain for those who put al lthat effort into finding these coins and digging them up, then feeding them into a coin star before making an even elementary effort to spiff them up a little for their return to circulation.

Silver Nickels · Apr 21, 2007

Use a mild soap and distilled water in a glass bowl. Do not mix metals. Copper coins in one bowl, silver in another and so on. Distilled water rinse and pat dry.

Snowy · Apr 21, 2007

Amonia works well on silver ... a 3 day bath, I'm told ...

I use hot peroxide for most anything.

I tumble clad pennies together, then nickels, dimes and quarters together.

Here's something you might want to read ...

http://www.mycoincollecting.com/collecting/cleaning-coins.html

Cleaning it makes them worse,What am I doing wrong?

ProfitOfDoom

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