baking soda

[Fordgalaxy]

I was reading a post on cleaning minibike carburetors. The OP used a small baking soda blaster he had made himself. It did a beautiful job on the carb with no visible frosting of the part like glass beads or sand would leave.

Has any one tried this? The metal coins are made of is much harder than the aluminum or pot metal that coins are made of.

I plan on trying it on some crusty clad to see how it works out, I'll post the results if anyone is interested.

Thanks Bill

[NoShow]

I'd be interested in seeing before and after pictures.

I can't believe it would be good for rare/collectible coins since it still involves a form of abrasive cleaning.

[pilarandmike]

Please document & share results.

[Onaug]

The baking soda method can strip a layer of the clad off just be careful.

[Jamflicker]

Baking soda does a great job cleaning silver.

[Iron Patch]

Originally Posted by Jamflicker

Baking soda does a great job cleaning silver.

If you want it very shiny and only worth it's weight, then I would agree.

[Jamflicker]

Originally Posted by Iron Patch

If you want it very shiny and only worth it's weight, then I would agree.

Good point, Iron Patch. I should have mentioned that I only do the baking soda method on common, no key dates and to my silver jewelry. I like the shiny stuff Jason

[DougF]

It's funny, I was active in coin collecting back in the early sixties and bought the popular collector magazines. I distinctly remember that baking soda was recommended for cleaning collector silver coins. The only caveat was that they recommended buying pharmaceutical grade sodium bicarbonate (from the drug store), rather than the "Arm and Hammer" stuff. Times change I guess.

[awsattler24]

Originally Posted by Jamflicker

Baking soda does a great job cleaning silver.

Unless of course you want to have coins graded. The 1843 seated half dime and 1852 seated dime I found I cleaned as gently as possible with baking soda. Saw a NGC certified grader today and he said that the company wouldn't touch them since they've been cleaned. So then I showed him my 1900 near mint barber dime and he said nope, that one's cleaned to. Only problem is the 1900 wasn't cleaned with anything but water, I told him that and he said "that's still a form of cleaning so the most NGC will do is slab it as genuine and state the grade in which it should be and add the word "cleaned" underneath" He then proceeded to tell me that after the slab says cleaned no honest collector will pay anything but spot price for silver for it. Even though it's a $200 coin.

[NoShow]

Originally Posted by awsattler24

Unless of course you want to have coins graded. The 1843 seated half dime and 1852 seated dime I found I cleaned as gently as possible with baking soda. Saw a NGC certified grader today and he said that the company wouldn't touch them since they've been cleaned. So then I showed him my 1900 near mint barber dime and he said nope, that one's cleaned to. Only problem is the 1900 wasn't cleaned with anything but water, I told him that and he said "that's still a form of cleaning so the most NGC will do is slab it as genuine and state the grade in which it should be and add the word "cleaned" underneath" He then proceeded to tell me that after the slab says cleaned no honest collector will pay anything but spot price for silver for it. Even though it's a $200 coin.

So let me get this straight... one should take the coin to them in the clump of dirt it came in?

Then how could they grade it if they can't even see what it is?

So then they would have to remove the dirt to see it, so then that would constitute a cleaned coin? Perhaps there's a degree of dirt removal that's allowed like 90%???????

Removing surface dirt to me is not cleaning, however removing patina is.

Please let him know I will buy ALL AU and higher 1873-CC "No Arrows" Liberty Seated dimes for scrap value! Actually, tell him I'll pay 3 times scrap for it!

[Oldsjunkie]

So this was someone who works for NGC, grading coins? I can tell you that a coin lightly cleaned with water wouldn't be slabbed as cleaned. Taking after them with baking soda is definitely a no no though because of the tiny scratches caused by rubbing them. They will grade coins that have been dipped, which does strip patina. Did you check this guy's credentials? Sounds like a dealer who may be registered with NGC that is trying to buy valuable coins for melt....

[awsattler24]

Originally Posted by Oldsjunkie

So this was someone who works for NGC, grading coins? I can tell you that a coin lightly cleaned with water wouldn't be slabbed as cleaned. Taking after them with baking soda is definitely a no no though because of the tiny scratches caused by rubbing them. They will grade coins that have been dipped, which does strip patina. Did you check this guy's credentials? Sounds like a dealer who may be registered with NGC that is trying to buy valuable coins for melt....

I didn't check any credentials, just trusted the claim... I also thought maybe he was trying to pull one over and snag some coins for cheap but he never once showed any interest in purchasing and never made any offer so maybe he was being straight with me. Regardless all I can say is if I ever have him look at my coins again I will gladly take the whole plug to him and say "It's in there, let me know when ya got something" That way if he cleans it to grade it, then I'll charge him 30% of the graded value for "ruining" my coin by "cleaning" it!

[awsattler24]

Originally Posted by NoShow

So let me get this straight... one should take the coin to them in the clump of dirt it came in?

Then how could they grade it if they can't even see what it is?

So then they would have to remove the dirt to see it, so then that would constitute a cleaned coin? Perhaps there's a degree of dirt removal that's allowed like 90%???????

Removing surface dirt to me is not cleaning, however removing patina is.

Please let him know I will buy ALL AU and higher 1873-CC "No Arrows" Liberty Seated dimes for scrap value! Actually, tell him I'll pay 3 times scrap for it!

I agree, neither removing surface dirt nor rinsing under water should be considered cleaning but that sure was what he claimed to me! I feel that cleaning would be baking soda, electrolysis, coin dips or rubs, vinegar, or any other method of those sorts. Just putting water on them to clean dirt shouldn't be "cleaning"

[Oldsjunkie]

Originally Posted by awsattler24

I didn't check any credentials, just trusted the claim... I also thought maybe he was trying to pull one over and snag some coins for cheap but he never once showed any interest in purchasing and never made any offer so maybe he was being straight with me. Regardless all I can say is if I ever have him look at my coins again I will gladly take the whole plug to him and say "It's in there, let me know when ya got something" That way if he cleans it to grade it, then I'll charge him 30% of the graded value for "ruining" my coin by "cleaning" it!

I don't believe I'd have him look at any more coins. Doesn't sound like he has much of an idea what he's talking about.

[Iron Patch]

Originally Posted by NoShow

So let me get this straight... one should take the coin to them in the clump of dirt it came in?

Then how could they grade it if they can't even see what it is?

So then they would have to remove the dirt to see it, so then that would constitute a cleaned coin? Perhaps there's a degree of dirt removal that's allowed like 90%???????

Removing surface dirt to me is not cleaning, however removing patina is.

Please let him know I will buy ALL AU and higher 1873-CC "No Arrows" Liberty Seated dimes for scrap value! Actually, tell him I'll pay 3 times scrap for it!

Dirt has nothing to do with it... meaning you could take a non circulated coin and sprinkle some dirt on it, then carefully remove it, and obviously the grader would not call it cleaned. They grade coins 100% based on condition, and not what they suspect might have happened, because there's no way they could ever know, and of course it just doesn't make sense. When you use something like baking soda it's abrasive and creates a million little scratches under magnification... which is how they grade. Just a coin being in the ground almost always (if not always) has these scratches or other surfaces problems so when grading they tend to get marked as cleaned, or environmental damage.

[fishnnut]

So then basically ANY silver even a key date if MD'd is only worth melt value? I would think a key date in very nice shape even if lightly cleaned with baking soda would be worth more than melt to somebody.... no? Maybe not a grader....

[Iron Patch]

Originally Posted by fishnnut

So then basically ANY silver even a key date if MD'd is only worth melt value? I would think a key date in very nice shape even if lightly cleaned with baking soda would be worth more than melt to somebody.... no? Maybe not a grader....

A key date or rare date would be worth more, and since I'm so sick of seeing the Olympics let me use them for an analogy. In the balance beam if you complete a good routine but don't stick the landing you receive some minor deductions, but if you get halfway through the routine and fall on your head a few times you get much bigger deductions, and they're to the point of knocking you out of the competition. When you use baking soda you are falling on your head.

What might be part of the problem is thinking a nice shiny coin is better, because it looks more like one that is in a very high grade, but that is false, the scratching completely trumps the looks and as I said it's basically a face plant type of situation. Having said that, for dug coins eye appeal definitely plays a roll in the value, but the idea is to increase the looks/value but not hurt the coin. Every coin has to be judged on a case by case basis, but for ones that do have some issues and could be made better with a light cleaning something like a coin dip would be a much better way to go. But again it depends on the condition and most key date or rare date dug silver probably should be left as dug, and only cleaned if you think the value would be higher than the current state. (and that's where experience counts) This was the case for my most valuable coin/token find. It was barely identifiable and had I sold it as is I would have only got about 20% of the price I ended up with. But I didn't hurt it in anyway, made it better by making all the words very clear to read. That one I cleaned with a combination of things, but I have the confidence and experience to do it, and it worked out. It's probably not a good idea for someone to experiment with a $1,000 coin as dug if they don't know what they're doing. So when someone says cleaning only hurts the value not only do I laugh, but have proof of one I increased the value on many times. (but make no mistake, with the wrong choice I could have put a 1k coin straight to zero)


So the first thing you do if you dig a great coin and aren't sure... take a giant step back and have some patience. It's very seldom a detecting find has to be cleaned or preserved right away.

[fishnnut]

Thanks for the info Iron but since you are experienced in cleaning coins what method do you use to clean silver coins in the event that you do want to clean one? Just curious thanks... I used baking soda and water and gently rubbed a few clean and under a lighted magnifying lens I thought they looked pretty good but then my old eyes are not what they used to be....lol Like I mentioned before some collectors are probably a lot more fussy than others but I would think there are still people wanting to add a particular coin to their collection and if it has great detail and looks good they would probably still pay more than melt price even knowing it was lightly cleaned....??

[Iron Patch]

Originally Posted by fishnnut

Thanks for the info Iron but since you are experienced in cleaning coins what method do you use to clean silver coins in the event that you do want to clean one? Just curious thanks... I used baking soda and water and gently rubbed a few clean and under a lighted magnifying lens I thought they looked pretty good but then my old eyes are not what they used to be....lol Like I mentioned before some collectors are probably a lot more fussy than others but I would think there are still people wanting to add a particular coin to their collection and if it has great detail and looks good they would probably still pay more than melt price even knowing it was lightly cleaned....??

Would need to see a picture, or at least a detailed description to even guess at what I might do.... because I would always want the option to say do nothing.

Yes, there will always be a home for key and rare dates for more then melt value, but the idea is to get the most out of each coin. I buy a lot of different things and I can tell you there's nothing worse than seeing something that I would really want but the seller cleaned it incorrectly. The end result is usually that I will buy it if I know I can make at least a small profit, but I can also easily walk away because I know the big buyers who would have paid me a ton won't be interested. Of course the rarer something is the more forgiving they might be, but that doesn't mean the price isn't smoked because the value will always be in some way based on the condition regardless of how rare it is. Heck you could dig the only one and the same thing will hold true because as soon as one appears all the people who throw out the cash will be considering what would happen if number two comes along and is a whole lot better. In other words the people who spend the money also worry about losing the money. I mentioned about my best find, well it was one of 5 that were found totally random here, but after about number three was found many of the people who matter started thinking we had found a cache and were unloading them slowly.... so they were very hesitant to want to pay much because of what could show up later for sale. Thinking about this I just remember by fluke coming across some coin dealer's article who actually stated all this! I could not believe what I was reading and wrote him saying he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. There's very few people that know the story of these, and I am the one that knows the most, so it's pretty messed up reading material from someone who is probably respected in Numismatics and he's spreading what's nothing more than a made up story.

[~Alan~]

Good advice here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OMPv2p8zH4