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My First Silver

Awesome coin. As for cleaning....sometimes I do, sometimes I donโ€™t. I dug a seated dime last week that looks fantastic as is. A day later I dug a Merc with rust on it. I scrubbed her pretty hard with baking soda and the rust is still there. Itโ€™s up to you.
 
When I dug my first silver, a Washington quarter, I got it wet and poured Barkeeper's Friend onto it. I rubbed it down and all the tarnish instantly disappeared. That's how I wash my silvers.
 
That is a very nice "first" silver coin you found! Barber quarters are just a rare dig to begin with, but this one has a lot of the original details left. Awesome dig!
I doubt that a gentle cleaning would effect the value of this coin a whole lot. If it were valued at hundreds of dollars, I would think it best to not clean it. I would probably end up taking a Mr Clean magic eraser to it...gently...under running water...until it got to a point I thought it would look best. Works good enough for me, but then I'm not skilled at grading coins.
Congrats!
 
Did the baking soda do the trick? Have not seen an update, If not, another way is to grab some tinfoil. Spit in the tinfoil and put the coin on it. Then spit on the coin and press the tinfoil around it. It will get hot and smell like rotten eggs. After it cools down remove the coin and rub off excess with a towel...
 
After searching this sports park over the last 2 weeks and coming up with one clad after another, this one blew me away. Still new at this so this helps to keep me in the game. Any suggestions on how to get the black stuff off?

That's a great first, congrats ๐Ÿ‘
 
So just out of curiosity. Why is the overwhelming response lean towards not cleaning the black stuff off the quarter. My initial reaction was to get it back as close to original as possible. Yet there seems to be a general consensus to leave it alone. No offense meant by this question, just wondering. Thanks!
Usually itโ€™s best not to clean a coin as it can diminish its value to a collector. With dug coins however, unless itโ€™s a rare or special date or variety, it usually wonโ€™t matter, so whatever you want to do to it is ok. The worst thing you can do is rub it when thereโ€™s dirt on it. Itโ€™s hard to resist the urge when you first dig it up, but you really should hold it by the edges until you can spray it with water. Silver scratches very very easily! A friend of mine once found a Barber half and wiped it ever so gently and then found it was a key date. The guy at the coin shop was so ticked off and actually yelled at him telling him he ruined in the coin. He said instead of giving him $250 for it he wouldnโ€™t give more than $50 now.
 
Very nice coin JDJeff. And to chime in on the clean/no clean. It's your coin, you own it now, or it owns you. I mean, after all, when a 1900 Barber Quarter is your first silver ever, it's almost like it picked you. So, do whatever you want. I do think the patina on this one gives it nice character.
 
Congrats!. My 1st silver was also a Barber Quarter. Took me longer than I'd like to admit to find my first silver, but it wasn't the last one. Here's to many more!
 
I dont know that I'd be in a rush to clean it. Its your first silver and you're excited about seeing it in all its shiny glory. But, as you become more seasoned at detecting, you begin to appreciate the dark toned look more and more. So, once you clean it, you're not going to have that tone and no way you're getting it back! And, you might be dissapointed in what it looks like cleaned and then your out of luck. So, maybe wait a bit and re-evaluate if you really do want to clean it.
As your first silver, its always going to hold that special feel about it. If you clean it and dont like the look, you've taken away from your "first" and it loses some of its specialness. I would wait until you find another dark toned silver and use that as the guinea pig to clean up so you can see what it looks like cleaned. That way if it goes bad, at least it wasnt your "first" Nice find by the way, whether its a first or a 1000th.
 
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