[alnke]

Hello all!
I am not good in chemistry. That's why i am telling you my problem:
I am a coins collector. I read a lot of topics about how to clean silver coins and i found a lot of methods.
First of all, i have some coins silver .835 from around 1880's. They are dirty, have dark color on it.
I want to clean them professional, without damaging them, even if i look at microscope.
Some peoples are telling me to clean with lemon juice, some with baking soda etc. How i can clean them best and keeping them in best condition.

I know you will give me the best idea.
Thank you in advance!!!

[chenbeier]

Wrap them in aluminium foil and put them in a pot of water containing baking soda. Boil it for 0,5 h and check. Repeat it again i until if they are clean.

[alnke]

Wrap them in aluminium foil and put them in a pot of water containing baking soda. Boil it for 0,5 h and check. Repeat it again i until if they are clean.

This methode is not damaging the coin? Do you think is better than soaking in lemon juice?
I will start to test this right now.

[Enthalpy]

I thought collectors wanted to keep the patina? Heard from collectors that a cleaned coin has little value.

[alnke]

You have right! We want to keep patina. But i bought some coins wich was found in ground. They are very dirty and as you saw in photo. This is much more than patina. Some of them have material deposits wich hide the details. I want to clean them as safely as possible.

[AWK]

Old coins are always damaged (more or less).