I'm going to clean my trime. Any suggestions?

[Mr. Digger]

I've thought this through. It's not a valuable coin and I think I can get the rest of that black gunk off. I can't tell if it's tarnish or maybe tar or something. Some of the black came off after the initial warm water/soap/soft tooth brush process at the sink, and that's all I've done to it so far. Any suggestions? I don't want to do the baking soda paste rub because it will be too silvery looking. Any other methods? Maybe I should just soak it in soapy distilled water for a while and that stuff will loosen up. Thoughts?

[Tony Two-Cent]

I have had very good success removing black sulfide from silver coins using the method:

http://www.americandetectorist.com/forum/showthread.php?696-Method-To-Remove-Sulfide-From-Silver

It did wonders on the capped bust half dime I found, and it doesn't make the coin look unnaturally shiny.

[Mr. Digger]

Thanks Tony. I remember reading that post before. It's a good technique. I guess the question: is the stuff on my coin sulfide, and if it isn't...is this still the right method? Who knows.

[Digger_O'Dell]

Tony, that's a simple form of chemical electrolysis, and I would think this would work pretty good. Another thing to try is using an ultrasonic cleaner to get the dirt and grime out of even the smallest recesses in the coin. I actually have one on order and expect to receive it next week and I want to try it on a couple of my mercs and cruddy pennies. I'll post results once they are in.

[freemindstuck]

I would try an ultrasonic cleaner with just a little soap and water first. I've also heard of people using xylene as a coin cleaning solvent. If it were my trime I might pay someone else to "conserve" or clean it professionally.

[Digger_O'Dell]

I was giving it a bit more thought-I was wondering if the deposit on that coin is tarnish from hydrogen sulfide-the same stuff that makes water smell like rotten eggs. It's common in ground water and tarnishes silver to a black or gold/black color really quickly. Happens to my girl's silver jewelry if she forgets to remove them before the shower or washing hands. We just use the silver cleaner dip we found at Walmart, and it works wonders! Just make sure if it's used, don't dip more than a few seconds at most and then immediately wash in water, or else it can cause other damage such as a yellow hue to the silver. But if used on the trime, I would just try to dab sparingly on the black spots using a cotton swab for the heavy cleaning, then after rinsed and dried, dip the whole coin briefly to get an even shine. It will darken up a bit over a short time again if exposed to air and handling.

[del]

I've used CLR (calcium lime rust) remover on silver coins to remove the dingy dirty stains and rusty marks from where iron nails are laying on the coin and stains it. this does well to remove these without making the silver all shiney but it can make the coin a bit dull grey at times . Although i'm not sure if the CLR will remove the black tarnish color on your coin DIGGER.