Cleaning coins

[Gary D]

I know just the thought of it will make most of you shudder, but can a certain amout of cleaning be carried out without impairing a coin. I have this 1935 crown which looks quite shabby and was wondering if it would withstand some simply washing with liquid soap just to remove the loose dirt and grime.

[Peter]

Try soapy cotton buds and softened (soaked) cocktail sticks.

The old rocking horse isn't rare so go for it.

Edited March 20, 2006 by Peter

[Gary D]

The old rocking horse isn't rare so go for it.

Oh well I'll go and get the brasso then, that will make it glint.

Just a hypothetical question. The 1933 penny is worth £30-40,000. The owner likes to keep his coins nice and shiny. As there is only one know in private hands would a drop of brasso actually make much difference in its value. Discuss.

Gary

[Rob]

The old rocking horse isn't rare so go for it.

Oh well I'll go and get the brasso then, that will make it glint.

Just a hypothetical question. The 1933 penny is worth £30-40,000. The owner likes to keep his coins nice and shiny. As there is only one know in private hands would a drop of brasso actually make much difference in its value. Discuss.

Gary

£45K actually based on Mark Rasmussens list. The collector who bought it would not be interested in cleaning it and would leave that decision to the next owner, so the problem is purely hypothetical. Coins are only polished by those who know nothing about collecting. Should such a lunatic use Brasso, its desirability would diminish and be replaced by another rare coin and therefore I would expect its value to drop.

[Gary D]

So Rob, are you saying that the value of the 1933 penny is more due to it's kudos built up over the years and not it's out and out rarity. Freeman rates it as R18. Looking through Freeman you find many R18s so if the 1933 penny were to be defaced its pre-eminent position would likely just be taken by some other rare coin such as the worthless 1935 crown picture in the original post which Rayner rates as R6, that's equivelent to a Freeman R19

[Rob]

So Rob, are you saying that the value of the 1933 penny is more due to it's kudos built up over the years and not it's out and out rarity. Freeman rates it as R18. Looking through Freeman you find many R18s so if the 1933 penny were to be defaced its pre-eminent position would likely just be taken by some other rare coin such as the worthless 1935 crown picture in the original post which Rayner rates as R6, that's equivelent to a Freeman R19

Yes I am saying that. It is accepted that the rarity of the 1933 is a Freeman R18 based on those 7 examples known, and there is leeway to find more without this changing. The number available to collectors is much lower at 2, so to deface one would merely result in a loss to that person as the other coin would still be very collectable. Given that pieces such as these are often sold privately, it is more a case of right place, right time than the coin having a rational value. Every buyer and seller has an incentive to keep the price moving gently upwards.

The 1935 crown rated R6 is the silver proof and the edge error. The basic model is as common as muck. Rayner quotes 714,769 pieces struck. As an aside, Rayner's rarity figures are quite suspect in places and I have heard in passing that he was influenced by a few collectors who doubtless had their own pieces in mind when it came to rarity assignation. e.g. ESC 1067A. I've got one, Colin Cooke had one, Spink are currently listing one on their website, the one pictured in ESC and a few others that I won't bother are more than the R6 rating given by Rayner, and interestingly Peck gave an R rating. Roman 1 1825 1/- is not R7, 1723 C/SS 1/- is not R5, the list is endless. Freeman also makes errors in both directions, so all of these rarity ratings must be treated with a pinch of salt.

[Gary D]

I fully agree about the accurancy of rarity figures as they are largely based on guestimates and are often only attributed to mint condition examples. The biggest problem is that rare examples have been hoared since they were minted wereas the general currency has been largely removed/remelted or plain lost. So any scarce coin like the 46 3ds, 53 penny etc probaly out number coins that were as common as muck at one time.

Regading the 1935 crown, Rayner rates both the common crown with edge error and the proof as R6. Spink rates the common as Extremely rare although gives a value for the proof. Davies gives a mention of both plus a 1982 value.

Would I be correct in assuming that every error is likely to be different in the missing or misplace text, which I assume would be dependent on how it jumped in the edge rolling process

Gary

[Chris Perkins]

The edge error always has missing letters from 'DECUS' and at least 2 large spaces between words. A VF one went for £865 on ebay recently. As far as I'm aware, there is only one type of error on the 35 non proof, but slipages may well have caused more types. The error on the 35 proof version is due to the 3 part collar being arranged incorrectly.

I have a 1951 error edge on eBay, which is not recorded.

[Coppers]

I have a 1951 error edge on eBay, which is not recorded.

You also have a 1934 crown up for sale on ebay -- one of the nicest I've seen.

1934 Crown

[Gary D]

The one in the opening post reads D UTAMEN * ANNO REGNI XXY * So it has missing text which is also incorrectly spaced. Would anyone like to guess just how many of these there are around. Out of a mintage of 714 thousand it would have to be pretty sloppy quality control for there to be more than a few tens or so.

[Gary D]

I have a 1951 error edge on eBay, which is not recorded.

You also have a 1934 crown up for sale on ebay -- one of the nicest I've seen.

1934 Crown

Must be worth a straight swap for my one

[Gary D]

The one in the opening post reads D UTAMEN * ANNO REGNI XXY * So it has missing text which is also incorrectly spaced. Would anyone like to guess just how many of these there are around. Out of a mintage of 714 thousand it would have to be pretty sloppy quality control for there to be more than a few tens or so.

The spaces have been removed from my post there should be a large space between the D and U also ANNO and REGNI

[Chris Perkins]

I have a 1951 error edge on eBay, which is not recorded.

You also have a 1934 crown up for sale on ebay -- one of the nicest I've seen.

1934 Crown

Lovely isn't it!

[Coppers]

I have a 1951 error edge on eBay, which is not recorded.

You also have a 1934 crown up for sale on ebay -- one of the nicest I've seen.

1934 Crown

Lovely isn't it!

Your 1934 crown is already at four thousand with 7 days left on the auction. It may end up setting a new price record for this coin (if it hasn't already).

[Chris Perkins]

Yes, I was surprised how quickly it went up!

I think it probably is a record for a non proof '34 crown already, but there is so long to go it might just go completely bonkers. I do hope so.

I think I'll put the images and resulting price on the website somewhere, and probably write off to Coin News, because it's good for credibility to sell such a coin for such a sum! And I could even feature it in CCGB2007.

[Jamesred]

Chris,

Do you have another one of them?

Just curious, if i had one id be scared to sell it. Any chance of the loose change you get over the 4k?

Its a coin many can only ever dream of owning.

[Chris Perkins]

I don't personally have anymore 34's at the moment :-(

I think I've probably handled more wreath crowns recently, particularly 34's, than any other coin dealer anywhere.

I bought one once from an old bloke who's dad actually did get a '34 crown handed to him as cash at the bank he worked at in the 40's. He was clever enough to realise the significance and exchanged it for 2 of his own half crowns (25p, just to put it in perspective!).

In 2004, his son sold it to me for £1000! It was, from memory, approaching EF but had some ugly edge knocks. I think I got £1300 for it.

[Jamesred]

I bet he was happy. Best things i get in change nowadays is the 1988 £1.

I see different coins all the time as i empty the vending machines at work but never get enough time to look at them carefully.

On another note, the Beta site is good, very good! Need more farthings on there as i have all the ones that you have I desperately need an 1844 . Colin Cooke dont even have one (bought quite a few from them)

[Peter]

1844 is/was easy.

Try 18 C varieties...a lifetime hobby.

[Jamesred]

1844 is/was easy.

Yeah only if people would stop sniping lol