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baking soda - OK for silver?

DougF

Elite Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
3,095
Location
Maryland
I've seen several people here warn against using baking soda on silver coins. When I was much younger (40 years ago) I was a serious coin collector and remember reading somewhere (an "expert" source) that baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) was OK for circulated coins, and would not affect the value. I think it was recommended to use a pharmaceutical grade such as found in a drug store, not the Arm and Hammer brand. Does anyone else remember this? Maybe the experts have changed their minds.

I have recently used it on a war nickel which had mottled stains (nasty looking) and it came out fine, without looking "cleaned".
 
I use regular baking soda for silver, and have for many years. Actually I had someone who had been collecting coins for sometime tell me about it. I wouldn't use it on any silver coin that had a great value though. Though it won't hurt an old worn silver coin, especially if it was found in the ground, if you have a silver coin in extremely good shape, the abrasion in the baking soda can put little scratches in it.
 
Yea Ive actually done the same thing. all my war nickels i pulled out of circulation looked extremely nasty so i put them in electrolosis for about 10 mins then took baking soda to clean off the leftover residue basically made them look like regular nickels that are in circulation, I hope I dont kick myself for doing it but they were really really nasty green looking.
 
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