Brown Barber Dime - Can it be cleaned?

Romeo7 · Apr 10, 2009

Hey everybody, I just found this 1898 Barber Dime this afternoon at a park that I have been consistently finding silver at. All silver coins I find are usually as shiny as the day they were dropped, that is until I found this 1898 Barber Dime. It is mostly brown like when today's clad silver tarnishes when in the ground for a couple of weeks. Any ideas on how to clean it? I tried the Baking Soda and Aluminum, then Lemon Juice. Nothing works.

Thanks in Advance.

-Mark

Showmethesilver · Apr 10, 2009

I wouldnt do anything more to it , it appears to be in extremely nice condition details wise.Let it soak longer maybe at the most in the baking powder/foil..i found one that stays black , figure it might have been in a fire.

Cherry Picker · Apr 10, 2009

I suggest the aluminum foil method.

Get a glass bowl and put some aluminum foil on the bottom shiny side up. Microwave enough water to cover the foil and coin for 45 seconds to 1 minute and then add some baking soda to the water. Put the dime on top of the foil and add the water. The tarnish should disappear.

tommyb · Apr 10, 2009

electrolysis would do the trick

Romeo7 · Apr 10, 2009

Detector said:
I suggest the aluminum foil method.

Get a glass bowl and put some aluminum foil on the bottom shiny side up. Microwave enough water to cover the foil and coin for 45 seconds to 1 minute and then add some baking soda to the water. Put the dime on top of the foil and add the water. The tarnish should disappear.

Thanks Detector.
So, I tried this and let it soak for 30 minutes with no change. Any other ideas?

Romeo7 · Apr 10, 2009

After Pictures

Here are the after pictures:

This barber is not a key date, in fact they minted millions of them. I new there was going to be some pitting that usually accompanies corrosion. I decided to leave it in for about 30 more minutes. When I checked back, it was really fizzing. The tarnish was dropping off in little clumps. I then made a Baking Soda paste and rubbed it with my fingers. It really shined up. Thanks for the advice.

mepot · Apr 11, 2009

Mark,please don't take this the wrong way,but I think that one may have been better off left alone.

Of course,if I ever get lucky enough to find one,I may have a different opinion.

mega · Apr 12, 2009

mepot said:
Mark,please don't take this the wrong way,but I think that one may have been better off left alone.

Of course,if I ever get lucky enough to find one,I may have a different opinion.

I clean all mine too, but i wished i hadnt.. if i ever find silver again, it will keep its old look :yes:

Oh Romeo7, nice coin :cool:

Romeo7 · Apr 12, 2009

Thanks. Trust me, I have about 40 silver coins now, and I never cleaned any of them more than just soap, water or a thumb rubbing. As I said before, this Barber was not a key date and not worth much as a coin. I think it's only worth its weight in silver. Anyway, I found the electrolysis cleaning method with the foils and the Baking Soda so intriguing, I wanted to try it. I'm not sorry I did it. In fact, it now looks good with the rest of my silver dimes in my collection. The coin was already visually pitted from corrosion, now it's just shiny.

Good luck on finding your own Barber Dime. It's out there...

HH.

-Mark

ProPointer · Apr 21, 2009

mepot said:
Mark,please don't take this the wrong way,but I think that one may have been better off left alone.

Of course,if I ever get lucky enough to find one,I may have a different opinion.

I agree, you may have hurt the value of it.

Romeo7 · Apr 24, 2009

Austin1997 said:
I agree, you may have hurt the value of it.

Nope. Did no such thing. It will always be priceless to me.

BTW, to be real about it, they minted 16 Million of these. It's with about $3 in good condition, which is about what it's worth in melt value.

scout23 · Apr 24, 2009

Good find

No mater what, You found a Barber Dime !!! Congrates.....Tom

Romeo7 · Apr 26, 2009

The Saga Continues

After considering that I obviously offended a few of the members of this board by cleaning my Barber Dime, I decided to make things right. I took my Dremel with the carbon steel wire brush wheel to the areas of the dime that had the corrosion pitting. Turns out that it was on the surface so it came off easily to reveal the true surface of the coin. Then, I had to make the coin old again, so I tried the old egg yolk trick. I placed the coin in a mason jar with a cooked egg yolk and let it sit overnight. It came out looking like it was in the ground for 100 years! I rubbed my finger on it like I usually do to all my silver find and wallah!!!! The coin is old again!!!! It looks just like the 1903 Barber dime I dug up last year that was naturally aged.

Thanks for following this little experiment of mine and HH.

-Mark

sandgodess · Apr 27, 2009

Romeo - that is hysterical! I don't think I have ever enjoyed the evolution and de-evolution of a coin so much.

bigjohn070 · Apr 27, 2009

Looks great to me mark!

HH
BIG JOHN

IdahoJoe · Apr 30, 2009

I like it! I'll take my Barber dime overeasy, wait scrambled, no wait, silver side up! Nice work. Still just a dream for me.

Joe

mepot · May 2, 2009

Romeo7,glad to see you have a sense of humor with your coin.Being a coin collector first,the thought of cleaning a coin is taboo.You are right though,the only real value is the silver,and the excitement of digging it out of the ground.

PS,I hope you got all the egg washed off it,you might have a strange smell coming from it if not :lol:

tungsten · May 11, 2009

THATS GREAT THANKS FOR THE LAUGTH !!!!!

Burien · May 17, 2009

Cool trick!

Brown Barber Dime - Can it be cleaned?

Romeo7

Attachments

Showmethesilver

Cherry Picker

tommyb

Full Member

Romeo7

Romeo7

Attachments

mepot

Elite Member

mega

Senior Member

Romeo7

ProPointer

Elite Member

Romeo7

scout23

Elite Member

Romeo7

Attachments

sandgodess

Junior Member

bigjohn070

Senior Member

IdahoJoe

New Member

mepot

Elite Member

tungsten

Burien

Elite Member

Similar threads