How to remove toning

[TheShinyStuff]

4 minutes ago, arphethean said:

Awesome item arrived today as well. 

A rather unusual one.

Bermuda Triangle 5oz 9 dollar silver proof. Only 1000 minted.

Not strictly a triangle of course, but a Reuleaux triangle, so has a constant diameter, rather like a 50p coin but with only 3 sides. Hence 9 dollars face value, not 10. The whole series is in multiples of three. There is also a 1oz silver coin with $3 face value, a 1oz gold coin with 60 dollar face value and even a FIVE OUNCE GOLD coin with 180 dollar face value! Why they didn't put 360 dollars on it I don't know. That would seem the obvious choice.

Sadly it was tarnished but a quick procedure amended that.

Before :

and after. A little chemical magic and it's like new again.

Very nice. Looks great after its 'procedure'! What did you do if you dont mind me asking?

[arphethean]

Just now, TheShinyStuff said:

Very nice. Looks great after its 'procedure'! What did you do if you dont mind me asking?

laid it (gently!) in a dish lined with aluminium foil. Sprinkled over some bicarbonate of soda, then poured on boiling water.

It's a non-destructive chemical reversal of the tarnishing.

Tarnish is basically where silver has reacted to sulphide in the air to form silver sulphide: AgS, which is brown/black.

The reaction with the aluminium displaces the sulphur to the aluminium leaving elemental silver again. In the process you get some hydrogen sulphide coming off giving that rotten egg smell.

It's amazing to watch - happens virtually instantly.

I've heard that it doesn't always leave the finish immaculate but to my naked eyes it looks good and that's what matters to me as it's just for my personal collection and I didn't pay a huge amount for it.

[HGr]

1 hour ago, arphethean said:

laid it (gently!) in a dish lined with aluminium foil. Sprinkled over some bicarbonate of soda, then poured on boiling water.

It's a non-destructive chemical reversal of the tarnishing.

Tarnish is basically where silver has reacted to sulphide in the air to form silver sulphide: AgS, which is brown/black.

The reaction with the aluminium displaces the sulphur to the aluminium leaving elemental silver again. In the process you get some hydrogen sulphide coming off giving that rotten egg smell.

It's amazing to watch - happens virtually instantly.

I've heard that it doesn't always leave the finish immaculate but to my naked eyes it looks good and that's what matters to me as it's just for my personal collection and I didn't pay a huge amount for it.

Thank you. I will try this! 

Edit: the video is also awesome

[arphethean]

4 minutes ago, HGr said:

Thank you. I will try this! 

Don't just go doing it to anything and everything. Sometimes cleaning  detracts from the potential value of a coin. I've no idea if that would apply to this coin, but I don't much care as it's just for my own collection and I didn't pay much over spot for it so it's not going to go down in value by cleaning it. 

[HGr]

OK, cheers for that. I have a couple of grotty old bars and coins I don't mind messing up, that I will try it on. 

 

 

[TheShinyStuff]

1 hour ago, arphethean said:

laid it (gently!) in a dish lined with aluminium foil. Sprinkled over some bicarbonate of soda, then poured on boiling water.

It's a non-destructive chemical reversal of the tarnishing.

Tarnish is basically where silver has reacted to sulphide in the air to form silver sulphide: AgS, which is brown/black.

The reaction with the aluminium displaces the sulphur to the aluminium leaving elemental silver again. In the process you get some hydrogen sulphide coming off giving that rotten egg smell.

It's amazing to watch - happens virtually instantly.

I've heard that it doesn't always leave the finish immaculate but to my naked eyes it looks good and that's what matters to me as it's just for my personal collection and I didn't pay a huge amount for it.

Thanks. Will it damage the frosted portions of a coin or change the finish in any way?

[arphethean]

Gosh, sorry - this wasn't meant to drag this thread so far off topic. Would probably benefit from a tidy @ChrisSilver

Truth is I don't know @TheShinyStuff. I would try it first on things that are not especially precious to you or have a high premium over spot as you could take value off it.

I personally have never seen any deterioration in a coin and I have cleaned lots of silver this way (mainly spoons and what not).

[HGr]

Do you know if it will remove an old fingerprint? I tried acetone and blotting with a cotton wool pad which made some difference, but there is still an annoying smudge on a proof like field. 

 

[TheShinyStuff]

3 minutes ago, arphethean said:

Gosh, sorry - this wasn't meant to drag this thread so far off topic. Would probably benefit from a tidy @ChrisSilver

Truth is I don't know @TheShinyStuff. I would try it first on things that are not especially precious to you or have a high premium over spot as you could take value off it.

I personally have never seen any deterioration in a coin and I have cleaned lots of silver this way (mainly spoons and what not).

Thanks. You're right about the thread, we'll call it a day here.👍

[ChrisSilver]

Posts split into a new topic @TheShinyStuff for future reference if you his the + multi quote button and then start a new topic, you should be able to paste the quote by using the quote post button that appears at the bottom right. Feel free to use this if you feel you wish to take a topic in another direction  you may also wish to use the tag feature in the new topic reply if you wish to let the other person know via email that a new topic has been started.




Quote post that appears after selecting quote 



This is also explained in this post, when you wish to quote a photo only topic into the photo only discussion topic  

@arphethean if you would like me to move your original post into this topic so you are the original topic author please let me know. It is an interesting subject. 

[Arganto]

I've had success using this technique on an 1oz Apmex bar that came in a little bundle I bought. It was heavily scratched and had some tarnish and toning.

I lined a dish with foil, covered the foil in bicarbonate of soda, placed the bar in the middle, piled up some more bicarb on the bar, poured boiled water over it until the bar was submerged then poured in a little more bicarb for good measure. This was enough to clear all the tarnish and all the toning in less time than it took to say "oooooh", but whilst wearing latex/nitrile gloves I picked the bar up and gave it a gentle rub. I figured it was already scratched so what the hey. Set it back in the dish, waited I forget how long and pulled it out. Rinsed it under cold water then laid it on a paper towel. The thing came out looking like a mirror, wonderful shiny shininess! I got my daughter to do all the work except the rubbing bit so it was kind of a science experiment too 😁

It's given me the confidence to try a piedfort £1 that has tarnish stuck in the reeding. I figure if I do everything except the rubbing part I shouldn't scratch the thing as otherwise it's immaculate.

[Silverscrooge]

I dont know why 'tarnishing' is viewed as undesirable, personally I prefer coins with a bit of toning as its a guarantee that a coin has not been cleaned, also if allowed to develop naturally toned coins end up being far more desirable and have character.

[arphethean]

7 hours ago, Silverscrooge said:

I dont know why 'tarnishing' is viewed as undesirable, personally I prefer coins with a bit of toning as its a guarantee that a coin has not been cleaned, also if allowed to develop naturally toned coins end up being far more desirable and have character.

On my coin here it was a blemish in my eyes. Much prefer the mirror finish after. 

I had a vintage jm kilo bar recently with toning. That absolutely added character and would not have cleaned it.

I think it depends on the situation

[arphethean]

10 hours ago, ChrisSilver said:

Posts split into a new topic @TheShinyStuff

@arphethean if you would like me to move your original post into this topic so you are the original topic author please let me know. It is an interesting subject. 

Thanks for the tidy @ChrisSilver. No, this is good. 👌

[arphethean]

Here's the video showing the process

From at moment about 20 seconds in is amazing! 

 

[Arganto]

Tarnish where there is blackening is a bit different to rainbow toning though. I quite like toned coins, unless they're unrecognisable as silver. Black tarnish looks like the butler hasn't been doing his job with the silverware 😁