Milk Spots

[Thelonerangershorse]

Just wondered, has anyone tried the aluminium foil and baking soda on milk spots?

I bought some silver last week that was a little toned and I tried this cleaning method, took around 30 seconds and the silver looked brand new.

does anyone have experience of using it on milky coins?

[James32]

I believe it will 'sometimes' help make them slightly better,if really bad, but not remove entirely. Probably not even worth the effort tbh.

[Happypanda88]

From personal experience, the aluminium foil and baking soda method helps to remove tarnish but does nothing to milk spots unfortunately.

Edited May 5 by Happypanda88

[Petra]

Milk spots are a manufacturing fault that all the big mints have, once milk spots appear …. that’s it🤔😮

[Silfrfish]

Yeah I experimented a bit with cleaning years ago, also with antiquing and anodising etc to camouflage unpleasant marks, nothing really gets rid of milk spots, but using a soft clean eraser can ‘tidy them up a bit’ and make them far less noticeable. This does leave very tiny scratches so on a mirror finish I’m not sure there’s much point, and a dealer will always see they’ve been cleaned up and generally won’t offer more than for a milk-spotted coin in my experience. Everyone says don’t clean numismatic coins, because you really shouldn’t 🙂…
 

But I have tidied up a few coins for myself using the eraser technique, and I do find it less traumatic to handle them now 😅

[Petra]

Just now, Silfrfish said:

Yeah I experimented a bit with cleaning years ago, also with antiquing and anodising etc to camouflage unpleasant marks, nothing really gets rid of milk spots, but using a soft clean eraser can ‘tidy them up a bit’ and make them far less noticeable. This does leave very tiny scratches so on a mirror finish I’m not sure there’s much point, and a dealer will always see they’ve been cleaned up and generally won’t offer more than for a milk-spotted coin in my experience. Everyone says don’t clean numismatic coins, because you really shouldn’t 🙂…
 

But I have tidied up a few coins for myself using the eraser technique, and I do find it less traumatic to handle them now 😅

Bullion …. fire away😮😁

[Silfrfish]

 

5 minutes ago, Petra said:

Bullion …. fire away😮😁

 Yep, I do what I like with ma bullion 😊 short of spray painting it

[ArgentSmith]

There has to be a way to remove milk spots, but this way is unfortunately still unknown to man.

[kimchi]

3 minutes ago, ArgentSmith said:

There has to be a way to remove milk spots, but this way is unfortunately still unknown to man.

Only way is melting the silver and burning off whatever chemical residue they left in the original blanks.

[TeaTime]

I've tried everything i can imagine - including heating the offending coins in a kiln 'til they glow 😬.

Nothing short of scouring will remove milk spots - i'm sure that they are caused by a chemical reaction that molecularly changes the metal.... The only way to remove them is to remove the offending metal.

Liver of sulphur will camouflage them if you are silver-tongued enough to persuade people the resulting coin is a (very rare) 'antiqued' variant  😁

[Thelonerangershorse]

17 hours ago, kimchi said:

Only way is melting the silver and burning off whatever chemical residue they left in the original blanks.

Seems a little harsh

[kimchi]

6 hours ago, Thelonerangershorse said:

Seems a little harsh

I answered the question implied.

There is no way to remove or 'solve' the problem of milkspots that is nondestructive.

 

[CoinCupboard]

Not that I'm a big fan of any sort of cleaning of coins, but I tried it a few months ago.

The Noah's ark coins look quite bad when milk spotting. More so because they have a kind of proof like field. I've tried silver cleaner and microfiber on them. It takes the milk spots out, but adds many scratches. 

Not tried on Britannias or maples..... Yet 😬 

EDIT: Just had a look at pictures taken last year of some Armenian Noahs arks, they are really bad. They seem to be the worst for milk spotting. I think once they are touched, they also leave really bad finger print marks. Even the picture on Numista, the coin is so bad. They are produced at a mint in Germany. 

Edited May 6 by CoinCupboard

[GoldDiggerDave]

On 05/05/2024 at 14:31, Thelonerangershorse said:

Just wondered, has anyone tried the aluminium foil and baking soda on milk spots?

I bought some silver last week that was a little toned and I tried this cleaning method, took around 30 seconds and the silver looked brand new.

does anyone have experience of using it on milky coins?

Removing milk spot on bullion silver is very easy, when I get a mo I'll show you how to do it.   It's even restored silver bullion coins that I've taken a blow torch to and discoloured the surface just to see how effective it is.   

Some people have used erasers and car polish that make them look better.  

[CoinCupboard]

I'll leave this to the professionals like @GoldDiggerDave

[GoldDiggerDave]

Never do this with a proof coin ............. This works a total charm on silver bullion coins, it does not effect the XRF reading on a 999 silver coin, it will effect 958 silver as it does contain silver. 

For fun you can silver plate a 2p coin and it will read 4% silver on a XRF machine.  

https://www.hswalsh.com/product/silver-solution-1x150ml-sf01a

Makes any silver bullion coin no matter how bad look like new, there is a knack to getting this right as its very easy to get swirl marks on the coins if you are not careful. 

 

ALSO WEAR GLOVES!!!!!!! GET THIS ON YOUR SKIN AND ESPECIALLY FINGER NAILS AND IT WILL TAKE WEEKS TO GET THE STAINS OFF!

 

 

 

Edited May 6 by GoldDiggerDave

[TeaTime]

I've used silver-plating solution before - and the results have been mixed. In my experience the end product appears 'tired', somewhat grey and you lose any mint lustre. And i can confirm that this stuff will stain your fingers like a 60 a day smoker with an aversion to washing.

I always end up with a silver coin / round that looks like it's been in someone's sweaty pocket for a month or two.

A tutorial is called for...... 😁

[Thelonerangershorse]

I've seen a youtube video showing how to get the silver stain off your fingers, from memory I think it's hydrochloric acid but I'd probably check first before I tried it.

[Silfrfish]

3 hours ago, Thelonerangershorse said:

I've seen a youtube video showing how to get the silver stain off your fingers, from memory I think it's hydrochloric acid but I'd probably check first before I tried it.

I’d probably check first too 😅

[MetalMandible]

Just accept the milk spots.  You were willing to take the risk by buying the coin(s) to begin with.  End of the day, its still silver.

[GoldDiggerDave]

22 hours ago, TeaTime said:

I've used silver-plating solution before - and the results have been mixed. In my experience the end product appears 'tired', somewhat grey and you lose any mint lustre. And i can confirm that this stuff will stain your fingers like a 60 a day smoker with an aversion to washing.

I always end up with a silver coin / round that looks like it's been in someone's sweaty pocket for a month or two.

A tutorial is called for...... 😁

When I get the time I'll dig out the milkiest silver I can and will do a YT video (they just take me ages ) could try as a YT short video as these are minutes to do but will have to compress into under 60 secs.  

I know what you are not doing and it requires to do something that sets off my OCD........once the solution is on the coin you have to buff off with a micro fibre cloth. I would never do this with any numismatic coin just bullion.   

 

 

Edited May 8 by GoldDiggerDave

[Silfrfish]

3 hours ago, GoldDiggerDave said:

When I get the time I'll dig out the milkiest silver I can and will do a YT video (they just take me ages ) could try as a YT short video as these are minutes to do but will have to compress into under 60 secs.  

I know what you are not doing and it requires to do something that sets off my OCD........once the solution is on the coin you have to buff off with a micro fibre cloth. I would never do this with any numismatic coin just bullion.   

 

 

Would be great to see how you do it as an expert 😀. I’m not generally bothered by milk spots unless it’s on the only one of a coin that I have, they prove a coin’s silver right 🧐

[gji25]

On 05/05/2024 at 14:31, Thelonerangershorse said:

Just wondered, has anyone tried the aluminium foil and baking soda on milk spots?

I bought some silver last week that was a little toned and I tried this cleaning method, took around 30 seconds and the silver looked brand new.

does anyone have experience of using it on milky coins?

Dont bother, just leave them milky as it will save you having to buy a sigma pmv

[gji25]

9 hours ago, GoldDiggerDave said:

once the solution is on the coin you have to buff off with a micro fibre cloth.

Like these ?