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As a rare coin collector, washed pieces are worth far, far, less.. cleaning coins makes them shiny but also wears off important details. I can't help but be sl
by asdf21 7y ago
As a rare coin collector, washed pieces are worth far, far, less.. cleaning coins makes them shiny but also wears off important details.
I can't help but be slightly mortified by the mass-cleaning of coins..
>Along with the coins, the burnisher is filled with water, bird shot to knock the dirt off, and a healthy pour of 20 Mule Team Borax soap. After three hours of swishing the coins around, Holsen uses a metal ice scoop to pour the loot into a perforated roast pan that sifts out the bird shot.
Argh, the horror!! I really hope no rare coins have passed through this.
- tecleandor 7y agoAh, but that makes your already collected coins more valuable
- shaneprrlt 7y agoLol, there's always a silver lining. :)
- abeppu 7y agoOnly true before 1965, at which point linings were switched to be copper-nickel alloys.
- staticautomatic 7y agoWhy not just use a mild acid instead of an abrasive? I remember being delighted as a kid that ketchup made pennies shiny!
- nlh 7y agoNot sure who's downvoting you, but I came here to say exactly this, and you're exactly right! All my numismatic spidey sense twitched when I read the story. I remember one of the first things I learned was that counter to instincts, cleaning coins with manual abrasives is bad bad bad.
- Theodores 7y agoWhat about ultrasonic washing? The machines sold for cleaning jewellery? Are they okay?
- ryanmercer 7y agoCleaning coins that have potential numismatic value is always a no-no, especially if it is something you intend to have graded. Even stuff that doesn't have a numismatic value, just common 'junk silver' (non key date coinage with silver content) is generally received poorly. (I'm a mod of /r/silverbugs). Disrupting/reomivng natural patina, surface damage (even microabrasion), artificial toning/patina is almost universally undesirable. Grading services, like PCGS, will even state a coin has been cleaned. PCGS's page on 'no grade' coins on cleaning https://www.pcgs.com/news/no-grade-coins-pt4 https://www.pcgs.com/news/no-grade-coins-pt4 : "This is a tough category and the subject of much debate and discussion over the years. PCGS interprets cleaning as surface damage due to any form of abrasive cleaning. "Cleaned" covers a wide range or appearances, from a grossly polished coin to one where faint hairlines can be seen only at a particular angle or in only one area on an otherwise perfectly normal coin. This is perhaps the most frustrating of all the No Grades, because subtle cleaning is often difficult to detect in less-than-optimal grading conditions. "Dipping" (the removal of toning with a chemical bath) is not considered cleaning under this definition, unless it has been done repeatedly or improperly. In the past, many coins were cleaned by well-meaning numismatists, before the dangers were fully understood." Cleaning with non-abrasives could also lead to artificial toning, covered at the same link above in their 'questionable color' section: "Most experienced numismatists appreciate the beauty of a spectacularly toned coin. Because toning is a natural chemical reaction, there are ways of accelerating the process as well as "enhancing" the results. These artificial means of creating toning are largely frowned upon, and if PCGS encounters a coin which we believe has been helped along in the natural toning process, we will not assign a numerical grade. A questionable color call can also occur if one tries to recolor a copper coin back to its original "red" color. Toning is also added in an effort to mask a past cleaning. Whatever the reason, collectors like their coins naturally toned over many years."
- vanadium 7y agoI shudder reading that, as a fellow collector.
- samstave 7y agoMaybe this is the perfect job for a coin collector. Lets assume this coin washer already knows this and is allowed to sift through every coin that comes through a fancy hotel before washing all the plebeian coins.
- gshdg 7y agoThe article says that after washing he goes through them to remove foreign coins and other non-standard currency.
- dragonwriter 7y ago> As a rare coin collector, washed pieces are worth far, far, less.. cleaning coins makes them shiny but also wears off important details. But the hotel isn't going to devote the kind of effort that would be necessary to realize any collectable value of the coins, whereas shining the coins they handle is literally (if only very slightly) burnishing their image.
- city41 7y agoThis reminds me of video game collectors complaining when games get played as the cartridges get scratched. I think collectors need to accept the reality of what they collect. Games are meant to be played, and coins generally need to be cleaned.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoDon't think they were ever cleaned as vigorously as the article describes, but it's not so long since banks used to clean and roll coins. Now they mainly use plastic bags. Not even sure if new coins fresh from the mint are still rolled, I can't remember seeing a roll for ages.