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DON'T CLEAN YOUR COINS - A Demonstration in Silver Dollar Destruction
Sep 12, 2019
CoinWeek Sponsor and creator of The Coin Course, Jerry Shaffer teamed up with CoinWeek to produce this great step-by-step demonstration of what happens when you dip and clean vintage silver or gold coins. To the untrained, the fastest way to damage a vintage coin and ruin its NUMISMATIC VALUE is to treat it or clean it with metal polish or other foreign substances.
View Video Transcript
0:00
so today I'm going to show you something
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you should never do clean a coin it's
0:07
been said that we learned for our
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mistakes the purpose of this video is to
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have you learned from my mistake so you
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don't repeat it never clean a coin the
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coin I plan to clean today is a 1900
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Morgan Silver Dollar it's in AU 50
0:26
condition it's a little bit dark because
0:29
of its age part of the reason the Red
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Book value of the coin is $39 after I
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clean it
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it'll be worth much less why would it be
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worth less after I clean it
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it'll be brighter it'll look nicer coin
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collectors want the appearance of the
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coin to match the condition of the coin
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if a coin is bright and shiny but
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obviously worn something's just not
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right it's unnatural coin collectors
1:02
want the appearance to match the
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condition here's an analogy to help you
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remember this have you ever been to the
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beach you've seen older people in
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swimsuits that were designed for people
1:14
in their 20s something's just not right
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it's unnatural just like a coin is
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cleaner so let's get to it
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let's this is a liquid and we will dip
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this point in the liquid for probably
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about five seconds I'll do half the coin
1:35
so you can see the difference Oh before
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I dip it let me tell you a story
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local coin shop owner told me recently
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that somebody came into a shop and they
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brought a number of coins in to have
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them valued and they said they cleaned
1:52
it before they brought them to the shop
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because someone who has some tarnished
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marks on them they said even one had
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like rainbows
2:00
on it but not the fear they cleaned the
2:04
coins and they look shiny now now if
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you're a coin collector this kind of
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story just breaks your heart because you
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wonder what would that 1800s coin with
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the rainbow sting have looked like
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before it was cleaned we'll never know
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now to be fair to the person who brought
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the coins in they just didn't know
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that's a reason for this video we need
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to help people understand that are
2:34
interested in collecting coins that
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clean coins isn't something that we do
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it's not good for the coin it lowers the
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value of the coin think of it this way
2:46
friends don't let friends clean coins
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hey that sounds like a bumper sticker
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let me know if you want one I'll have
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something made up okay
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back to cleaning of the coin let's take
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the coin and dip it for about five
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seconds we'll do half the coin
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okay that should be about right and
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we'll tap it
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hey that's pretty dramatic let me get
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this close to the camera so you can see
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it see the autofocus here look the
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difference at me Wow
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okay now let's look at the reverse
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pretty dramatic difference isn't it
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all right I'll complete tipping the coin
4:10
to do the whole coin and then I'll take
4:12
a picture of the before and after I'll
4:14
include it somehow in this video to show
4:16
you but one last step I'd like to do
4:18
after I completely clean the coin is
4:21
we're going to take it to a coin dealer
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I'll get a couple pictures now though
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half cleaned I'll be right back okay
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now we'll dip the other half
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okay
4:57
alright there's still a line on the
5:00
reverse maybe I didn't leave it in quite
5:04
as long as the first time there we go
5:13
so let me dip it just a little bit more
5:17
so you might get rid of that line
5:47
yes that cleaned it even more than the
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first time you look at it see the top
5:54
now appears dirty since I have the
5:58
bottom cleaned even more okay and I will
6:07
try to post some photos of this also so
6:12
you can see the before and after now to
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complete this demonstration let's do one
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more thing let's take our cleaned coin
6:19
to a local coin dealer and see what he
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thinks about it okay here we are at my
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favorite coin shop in Northeast Ohio
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good how are you I've got a real nice
6:32
Morgan Silver Dollar it's a nice coin
6:42
but it's a lot nicer before was cleaned
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well what do you mean well if you look
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at the coin closely you can tell that
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there's significant wear on the coin and
6:52
when a coin is worn like this and has
6:54
this much brightness to it it usually
6:59
means that's been cleaned so if we sent
7:02
this off to a third-party grading
7:03
service it would come back with the
7:06
details grade what this details mean
7:09
details whenever a grading company
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grades a coin details it means there's
7:14
something wrong with the coin either
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it's been cleaned damaged corroded yeah
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what would that do to the value if it
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comes back details well I could put as
7:26
much as cut it in half
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hmm did you clean this coin yes I did
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you should be ashamed remember friends
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don't let friends clean coins
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[Music]
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[Music]