Cleaning my junk silver

[Gildeon]

I know several people will object but I want to show what I am doing anyway. Got a small tumbler and having some fun with it, cleaning a part of my junk silver. Just to clear a few points:

• I am only doing this to coins with no numismatic value or potential (in my opinion). These will be sold close to spot when the time comes anyway.
• Of course not doing it to coins in near uncirulated or good condition in general and to ones with (some at least) collectible value (no standing liberty halves!)
• It gives a whole new life to coins in very bad condition. You can touch them without getting dirty and not to mention all the germs etc.

What is your opinion? 🤓

[HighlandTiger]

I have no problem cleaning junk silver, although I use a silver bath and a soft cloth.  Although it appears you and I will be put on the naughty step for doing so by the numismatic police. 

[Gildeon]

48 minutes ago, HighlandTiger said:

I have no problem cleaning junk silver, although I use a silver bath and a soft cloth.  Although it appears you and I will be put on the naughty step for doing so by the numismatic police. 

Your handling sounds way too soft comparing to mine in this case! 😀

[Murph]

The problem with that is even though they are almost worthless now they will increase in value over time and now you've ruined them for future collectors.  🙂

They're yours so you can do what you like to them. 

Maybe you'll have some lying around that your grandchildren will find in 50 years time and if you hadn't cleaned them they could have bought themselves a night out on the money from the sale but now they'll maybe be able to scrape together enough to buy a pint. 😉

[Gildeon]

Hopefully will sell these before my grandchildren need them! 😃

[ChrisF]

You can always shove them down your jockstarp and hit the gym for an hour they will be grungy again in no time. 

[HighlandTiger]

2 hours ago, Murph said:

The problem with that is even though they are almost worthless now they will increase in value over time and now you've ruined them for future collectors.  🙂

They're yours so you can do what you like to them. 

Maybe you'll have some lying around that your grandchildren will find in 50 years time and if you hadn't cleaned them they could have bought themselves a night out on the money from the sale but now they'll maybe be able to scrape together enough to buy a pint. 😉

Only ruined them for the obsessives and the slabbers, (although thinking about it, they're really the same). There are thousands of coin collectors out there who don't mind cleaned coins, and just want something to "fill the gap". And to be honest coin collectors are a dying breed, and in 30 or 40 years, you'll struggle to get even today's prices for coins. (Seen it happen in the stamp world) Kids today collect other things, video games, trainers (sneakers for our American cousins), Instagram followers etc. Coins (unless brainwashed by coin collecting parents or relatives), are no where on the scene for 99.9999999% of today's youth. 

I actually have to laugh at the mentality of coin collectors who hate cleaned coins from 100 years ago, whilst saying nothing when a museum cleans a hoard of gold coins from a 1000 years ago.

It's similar to wine snobbery, where because someone has said in the past cleaned coins are bad, everyone then believes cleaned coins are bad.

No different to wine buffs telling me white wine should be chilled and red wine should be at room temperature, all because one wine snob in the past said so and it became to the thing to do. 

Well, like my cleaned coins, I also love chilled red wine 

I'm such a rebel 😋

[sovereignsteve]

4 minutes ago, HighlandTiger said:

It's similar to wine snobbery, where because someone has said in the past cleaned coins are bad, everyone then believes cleaned coins are bad.

No different to wine buffs telling me white wine should be chilled and red wine should be at room temperature, all because one wine snob in the past said so and it became to the thing to do. 

While I too scoff at the sheep like mentality of the "fashion" followers, I think in the two cases you example you are wrong.

I like wine, oh do I like wine? My palate has developed over the years to the extent that I can't abide warm white wine, nor do I enjoy cold red unless it's cheap and nasty and to be glugged on a warm summers day. A good quality red is completely wasted by chilling.

With regard to coins; if you look at two old coins side by side; a good uncleaned example against a cleaned similar coin. It really is chalk and cheese; the surface and lustre of the unadulterated coin against the lifeless bland surface of the cleaned one. The former is a thing of beauty, the latter completely ruined.

[HighlandTiger]

36 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

I like wine, oh do I like wine? My palate has developed over the years

I'm sorry but anyone who uses the word "palate" when talking about wine drinking is a lost cause. 

You have definitely been brainwashed by the wine mafia. Next you'll be telling me you drink wine out of a glass the size of a pint mug, swirl it around, sniff it a bit (taking in the aroma of blackberries and WD 40), and then hold it in the mouth for a few swishes of the tongue before drinking it. 

 

[Murph]

Obsessives and slabbers aren't the same thing.  I don't bother slabbing coins and only rarely buy slabbed coins (if they are as cheap or cheaper than an similar unslabbed).

As for wine, savouring the taste of anything by moving it around in your mouth is perfectly fine with me as is the occasional slurp to bring some air in with the liquid. 

It's better than pouring it down a funnel into your gob in the hopes of becoming inebriated without having to suffer the vinegar like taste of the cheap plonk you've resorted to.  Then again if that's your bag as long as you don't bother me when your drunk or pick a fight with my property on your way home I couldn't care less.

 

I don't know about coin prices crashing in future and people not collecting them because coin collecting hasn't been very popular with younger people for almost as long as I can remember.  (I was the only kid in my local coin club more years ago than I care to mention and most of the members were middle aged or retired.) Certainly not as popular as stamps used to be with kids but I don't suppose many of those kids continued collecting past their early teenage years and they wouldn't have been buying many very costly stamps.

Unfortunately even though coin collecting has been becoming less popular the prices certainly haven't really followed suit.  Yes the internet has had an effect but I suppose it has done so with many other hobbies.

[Gildeon]

Personally I am somewhere in the middle. Of course there are coins that worth to be preserved and collected . My points in this case are:

• Not all coins are like this, some can be collected only for the weight (like these ones). So no reason not to have them looking good, like removing milk spots from bullion coins if you can.
• Can't really understand how a coin full of dirt, muck or anything else, can have more appeal than a clean , shiny one.

So yes, let's preserve the important coins when we can but not treat every piece of metal like it's sacred at the same time.

[sovereignsteve]

6 hours ago, HighlandTiger said:

I'm sorry but anyone who uses the word "palate" when talking about wine drinking is a lost cause. 

You have definitely been brainwashed by the wine mafia. Next you'll be telling me you drink wine out of a glass the size of a pint mug, swirl it around, sniff it a bit (taking in the aroma of blackberries and WD 40), and then hold it in the mouth for a few swishes of the tongue before drinking it. 

 

Palate:  noun

1. the roof of the mouth, separating the cavities of the mouth and nose in vertebrates.

synonyms:roof of the mouth;

hard palate, soft palate

"the tea was so hot it burned her palate"

2. a person's ability to distinguish between and appreciate different flavours.

"a fine range of drink for sophisticated palates"

 

OK let's ignore the first definition but the second one sums it up pretty well.

When I was younger I loved white wine, I was unsophisticated and could glug chilled white wine at a rate to wash my food down and to get the desired effect. Then decent (ish) red wine became available, previously it was like old vinegar. I found I actually prefered the more subtle tastes of red which are brought out when drinking at the correct temperature. I didn't need any so called wine experts to tell me how to drink it. My palate had discovered pastures new and appreciated it.

However, i was still drinking cheap red wine as I couldn't afford anything better. At some point I was able to taste better quality red wine and I immediately found I preferred it to the cheaper sort. I wasn't "brainwashed" by so called wine experts; my palate actually preferred the better stuff.

Now I'd rather go without than drink bad wine. My palate has tasted the good stuff and won't stand for anything but the best. I don't drink so much as I can't afford it but I guess my health will take the benefit. Wine is a pleasure and certainly doesn't need any expert's advice to enjoy.

Your comments are presumptive, rude and offensive. They also show a complete ignorance about taste, palate and wine.

Cheers🍷

 

 

 

[danmc82]

I've always found it strange that I cannot stand the taste of wine, either red/white/rose, but I do love good quality port.

The difference between Vintage Port and the newer stuff is amazing. I assume Red WIne is similar in the aspect?

Anyway, back to coin cleaning. I've cleaned Silver in the past and managed to sell it easy enough. But they were approx 80% SIlver from what I remember.

If they are for you to keep, do what you want. If you plan to sell in the future, think about your buyers would prefer.

[sovereignsteve]

54 minutes ago, Gildeon said:

Personally I am somewhere in the middle. Of course there are coins that worth to be preserved and collected . My points in this case are:

• Not all coins are like this, some can be collected only for the weight (like these ones). So no reason not to have them looking good, like removing milk spots from bullion coins if you can.
• Can't really understand how a coin full of dirt, muck or anything else, can have more appeal than a clean , shiny one.

So yes, let's preserve the important coins when we can but not treat every piece of metal like it's sacred at the same time.

I'm not sure anyone has said cleaning coins is always wrong. I have been known to do it myself.

[DarkChameleon]

On 20/07/2019 at 09:28, HighlandTiger said:

Only ruined them for the obsessives and the slabbers, (although thinking about it, they're really the same). There are thousands of coin collectors out there who don't mind cleaned coins, and just want something to "fill the gap". And to be honest coin collectors are a dying breed, and in 30 or 40 years, you'll struggle to get even today's prices for coins. (Seen it happen in the stamp world) Kids today collect other things, video games, trainers (sneakers for our American cousins), Instagram followers etc. Coins (unless brainwashed by coin collecting parents or relatives), are no where on the scene for 99.9999999% of today's youth. 

I actually have to laugh at the mentality of coin collectors who hate cleaned coins from 100 years ago, whilst saying nothing when a museum cleans a hoard of gold coins from a 1000 years ago.

It's similar to wine snobbery, where because someone has said in the past cleaned coins are bad, everyone then believes cleaned coins are bad.

No different to wine buffs telling me white wine should be chilled and red wine should be at room temperature, all because one wine snob in the past said so and it became to the thing to do. 

Well, like my cleaned coins, I also love chilled red wine 

I'm such a rebel 😋

Well put, I like to handle my gold coins, some of them, sovereigns, the way they were handled when they were new, if I don't get extra for them being pristine then so what, I can take the hit on a half dozen or so circulated ... my old coins are loose, maybe when I go to big bucks then it's safer to have slabbed with the records available to avoid fakes but I'll take the 2x2 card holders for those that are not in the hundreds each...BYB has his little pouch of silver coins to play with...it's a little more difficult for me not to clean cos as a metal detectorist I have cleaned thousands of coins in a rock tumblet to get them to go though the coin machines...future collectors will say my name with hatred....hence Dark Chamleon....lmao.

[sovereignsteve]

1 hour ago, Bullionbill01 said:

Yawn - get over yourself

Where's your sense of humour mate? Not that it was anything to do with you. Tiger was having a laugh, so was I😜

[DarkChameleon]

7 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

Where's your sense of humour mate? Not that it was anything to do with you. Tiger was having a laugh, so was I😜

I thought it came in a box?...lol..once I was on a flight and the stewardess asked me if I'd like some wine, I said, sure, can you mix it with lemonade?, I think I got more looks then if I'd opened the door...apparently it wasn't a cheap wine and a poor man's white wine spritzer was not great for this crowd....it was as much fun to watch their faces then it was to drink my wine and lemonade...lol.

[sovereignsteve]

2 minutes ago, DarkChameleon said:

I thought it came in a box?

sense of humour or wine?😂

I clearly didn't use enough emoticons for some people in my previous post, I'll have to go back and edit it😉

[DarkChameleon]

4 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

sense of humour or wine?😂

I clearly didn't use enough emoticons for some people in my previous post, I'll have to go back and edit it😉

Wine, five buck chuck....a million bums can't be wrong.

[sovereignsteve]

1 minute ago, DarkChameleon said:

Wine, five buck chuck....a million bums can't be wrong.

I can't really disagree with you, each to their own😊 I've been there😁

[DarkChameleon]

4 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

I can't really disagree with you, each to their own😊 I've been there😁

With the wine or a bum?.

 

My wine,collection adds up to 9 bottles, 6 I use to cook with,one is a small bottle of M&R Asti which I do like and two bottled of champagne, one from 1984 and one from 2004, not because of the vintage but because neither of us drink worth a damn, lol.

[sovereignsteve]

1 minute ago, DarkChameleon said:

With the wine or a bum?

possibly both. i remember when I was first married, first job, so poor we had to look behind the cushions on the sofa for enough change to make up enough for a bottle of red wine or a donner kebab. Can't remember which one won. Don't think i made it to bum status though😂

[DarkChameleon]

Been poor and sat for days for the SS to come in, trying to make one tea bag equal two teas...first one not so bad, second..a little weak...I still do the cuchion thing now, cos I convert my change into coins or jewelry...but I'm still a cheap bum...I'll take the money I save on some voucher and put it away, sell anything not nailed down and hate buying my wife jewelry cos that markup is a total rip off...lol.

 

Mind you it doesn't help that she keeps her jewelry in a tuperware bowl, I may as well have bought her costume jewelry for the way she treats it.

[Xander]

Talking about cleaned coins I find it strange NGC consider cleaned gold coins equivalent to scrap value even though they don't look cleaned. 

The reason I say this, I recently had this experience with them. I also  seen a couple of coin that said cleaned and this put me off buying them. Pretty much frustrating.

[sovereignsteve]

30 minutes ago, DarkChameleon said:

Been poor and sat for days for the SS to come in, trying to make one tea bag equal two teas...first one not so bad, second..a little weak...I still do the cuchion thing now, cos I convert my change into coins or jewelry...but I'm still a cheap bum...I'll take the money I save on some voucher and put it away, sell anything not nailed down and hate buying my wife jewelry cos that markup is a total rip off...lol.

 

Mind you it doesn't help that she keeps her jewelry in a tuperware bowl, I may as well have bought her costume jewelry for the way she treats it.

anytime now, someone is going to link the Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen sketch 😁