How To Clean Australian 50 Cent Coins

Mortein New Member

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Hello everyone. This is my second post so go easy on me.
I have a 1966 50c piece that untill recently just sat in the bottom of a shoe box with some other treasured keep sakes. When I discovered this forum I realized it had a silver content. It is a bit tarnished from a lack of care on my part and my question is how can I clean it?

Cheers
Mortein
hiho Active Member Silver Stacker

put on a peice of aluminium foil in plastic container
sprinkle bicarb soda on it
pour boling water over it
sprinkle salt over the solution
wait 1 minute
rinse in dimineralised water then dry on cotton cloth
Bandit New Member

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Hi,
There might not be much point in cleaning it as it won't effect it's value in silver being tarnished. The round 50's are only worth the weight in silver and nothing more, other coins would potentially lose value if you clean it.
hiho Active Member Silver Stacker

not true mate, they generally fetch 50c to a $1 premium per coin, however you are correct in saying they will not fetch a premium if cleaned
Bandit New Member

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That's if they are a clean coin to begin with and not one that has been cleaned, in my opinion anyway. There are so many of these no one that I have seen is going to pay any premium on them, mainly because these coins were not in circulation very long, plus the amount that was minted, so most of them are in good condition.
this method works a treat on 80 % silver coins or more ,
not so good on 50 % silver coins.
Jislizard Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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36 million of them made and most didn't spend long in circulation. Unless they are in perfect GEM condition they are generally not worth much more than their silver content )and a small premium because they are very liquid, easily recognised and have the Government seal of Quality Control on them).
If you really want to clean them without damaging them go no further than a warm soapy water soak followed by a gentle rub with your thumb just to remove any dirt or grease.

By all means try the bi carb and aluminium foil trick, it has never worked for me but then I have mostly 50% coins and most of the dirt is dirt, not tarnish.

If you have some bi carb wet your thumb, dip it in the bi carb and gently rub the coin under flowing water. It will shine up nicely.

Enjoy your coin, another two and you have an ounce!
Swirl the coin in some cloudy ammonia in a small bucket for 5 minutes.
I can voucher for that %100
Mortein New Member

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Thanks for all the valuable advice eveyone. I now have the info to decide on which way I will go with the coin.
Thanks
Mortein
Jislizard Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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I like this a lot for junk silver or anything with a marred surface but I would hesitate to use it on anything semi decent. The Cloudy ammonia removes copper from the coin, which is why it goes blue after a while. A short dip is ok for removing grease and other dirt. I do find that it leaves the 50 cents slightly yellower than sodium Bi carb, which is why I usually finish with a quick sodium bi carb polish. If the coin is not too dirty you can skip the cloudy ammonia altogether. I usually only use cloudy ammonia when I have a batch of coins to do as it does speed things up a lot.
I can detect pitting on the surface of coins which have been in cloudy ammonia too long, most noticably in the fields but maybe I am just feeling guilty for cleaning coins!
My advice.. if your really bored or just want to mess around with the coin for kicks then clean it.. if you 6 nt get pleasure in trying to make this clean and shiny then just forget about it as id suggest its 100% not worth your time to clean a 1966 if you wanted any monetary gain from doing so.
1for1
Right folks, I'm still a relative n00b here remember, so same as the OP said...GO EASY ON ME WITH YOUR RESPONSES TO MY QUESTION...I'm still learning.
I just got a little 1oz .999 silver bar today but it is REALLY tarnished.

Why can't I just take a little 'Silvo' to it?

Will it damage the bar or affect its value?

Or does the mere mention of the word 'Silvo' make you all want to stone me to death? :/
Stand behind, meh lady, I'll take the stoning, for I clean my non-numi silver till it's pretty and shiny!
I will personally only clean older coins/junk silver.
Bars.... well, that's your choice Got pics?
Silvo for non numismatic silver will do niceley. So will bicarb, toothpaste & Coca Cola
You don't need to use cleaners on pure silver.
Pure silver 'tarnish' is simply sulphur oxide build up, it occurs naturally when Silver is in contact with air for an extended period.

You can remove it without rubbing (and possibly removing silver) by the simple method explained above.

Get a ceramic or glass bowl (anything that can take boiling water).
Put a layer of aluminum foil on the bottom.
Put about a teaspoon of bi carb soda on the foil.
Pour hot water over the top, the bicarb will disolve.
Put the silver bar on the foil, under the water.

The bar will clean itself in a few seconds.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp62AvR7kFM[/youtube]

Pure silver is the easiest thing in the world to clean and this method will ensure you lose 0% of the silver.

If you rub the silver with cleaning agents, you will remove some silver in the process (but it's miniscule).

For coins, it depends on the content. The above method works best for removing patina (the sulphur oxide) from the silver, but will not remove grit/dirt nor restore lustre.

For the 1966s, you can rub the bicarb by hand onto the coins to remove surface grit/dirt under slowly running tap water.

Once the dirt is gone, you put the coins in CLOUDY AMMONIA for a few hours (stirring occasionally) and it'll bring back the shine.

I've done a large scale job like this for John (Stella Concepts) on Youtube last year, about 200 coins and they came up beautifully with this method.
Jislizard Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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I used this advice from one of your earlier posts and it really does the job, makes them brighter than when they were minted though I have noticed that it is a slightly yellow brightness but I usually do the cloudy ammonia first to remove grease and general dirt and then I clean with the sodium bicarb to bring out the shine and make them white again.
I have noticed that the cloudy ammonia goes blue, which is apparently the copper coming out of the coin and into solution. I am sure I can see pitting on the coins but unless I have bionic vision I am sure this is not the case however the surface of the coin does look rougher after a soak in cloudy ammonia. Unfortunately all the coins I put through this treatment have come from circulation, hence the need for the cloudy ammonia so I have no idea if it does any damage to the surface of the coins as they are already pretty scuffed up.

Have you noticed any tiny pitting in the surface of coins after treatment or is it just my numismatic side giving me subconsious warnings?
I would never clean a coin that's of numismatic value anyway. That's a big no, no, unless the numi premium is really small (as far as I go in cleaning a semi-numi is a 1937 crown, no higher).
So 'pitting' is generally a non issue on the 1966 because they're common. They have a small premium attached of about 50c-$1 per coin, but otherwise are just valued based on silver content.

That's the easiest way to 'price' your 1966s if you're in the market. Do a spot price check on the silver content and add 50c to $1 per coin. Anything over I'd generally avoid, but that's another discussion.

The process has never produced results on the 1966 that would cause me concern.

Here's a link to John's vid on YouTube where he opens up the coins I cleaned for him late last year :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlxi57rT5Ds[/youtube]

(fast forward to 5:20 in order to see the end result)