Cleaning up the Silver Maple Leaf
Hi SSG!
The other day I posted about a 2009 Canadian Silver Maple Leaf that I acquired. It was pretty beat up, tarnished, and milk spotted. This post is about me cleaning it up a bit.
Personally, I like shiny silver, and my silver investing strategy is to buy silver as close to spot as possible. This means that I am not necessarily a “collector”, but really more of an investor.
A collectible coin (numismatic value) will have a big premium to the spot price of silver, whereas bullion is mostly just worth the spot price of silver or a little more. When you have a coin/round/bar with a premium, you need to protect that premium. This means that you should not do what I am about to show you, as tinkering with the silver can lower the numismatic value.
With this information out of the way, I want to show you the cleaned up 2009 Canadian Maple Leaf. Here is the after cleanup shot:
Here is the before cleanup shot:
As you can see, the coin is much more shiny and appealing to the eye. While I did not increase or decrease the value of the coin, it looks nicer to me, so I think the effort to clean it up is worth it.
To clean it, first I did the “hot salt water in aluminum foil with baking soda added” trick. This is quite easy, and you can find many tutorials on YouTube. I like to do this as it removes the dirt and tarnish well before the next step. As you can see, it looks better already, but there are still the dreaded milk spots on the coin:
Milk spots are a result of the cleaning agents being baked onto the silver during the minting process, so there is no way to prevent them. The Royal Canadian Mint (made this coin) has had real problems with milk spotting in the past, though they believe they have fixed the issue for 2018 and going forward. This coin did have plenty of ugly milk spots, so to remove them, I used a dry jewelry wipe (box of 25 cost me $5), which quickly removes the milk spots like magic. The only issue with doing this is that any dirt on the surface can cause micro scratches to the coin when it is rubbed down, so it is very important to make sure you clean the silver with soap/water or the first step I did above. This process also removes the tarnish, so perhaps the first step is not really needed, but what can I say, I am just having fun here. My coin was already heavily scratched, but cleaning it like this certainly shows the wear and tear a bit more.
So there you have it, a like-new shine on the formerly beat up 2009 Canadian Maple Leaf – A beautiful addition to the stack, eh?
Would love to hear any feedback or advice from others who have more experience in these matters than I do!
Take care,
Brian
Regarding cleaning the silver, I say that if you want to clean it up, do it! It's just bullion and won't be worth anything numismatically, so if you want it to be clean, then I don't see the harm in that.
When you're buying precious metals, one thing you should look at if you're planning on selling it back (even at a profit) is the "roundtrip cost." That's the difference between what you pay and what you get. Sometimes you'll pay $2.50 over spot to get a silver american eagle, but they buy it back at $1.00 over spot. So if spot stays the same, your roundtrip cost is $1.50 per ounce. For rounds, you might buy them at $1.00 over spot, but they pay $0.50 - $0.75 under spot, so your round trip cost is $1.50 - $1.75.
I know a number of people who get upset at the idea of paying more than spot price which is what they say the coin is worth. I also don't like paying large premiums, so I tend to avoid coins like the pandas. However, I normally remind them that spot price is what the miners get. There is a lot of work and money that goes into turning that raw material into the coin you see. Plus, the person selling it needs to pay to keep the lights on. You wouldn't tell the butcher that you're only paying $0.50/lb for beef because that's spot price. The reason it's $5, $10, $20/lb is that there's skill and time that goes into processing the meat into the cuts that people want.
I'm personally viewing my precious metals as a savings account. There's a fee to get them, but it also means that I'm not losing money to inflation against them. That's one of the reasons that getting lower-premium stuff helps with perceived profitability... at least at this juncture. From what I hear, the realistic price for silver should be somewhere much, much higher than where it is now, so when the cheap paper contracts disappear, I think there's going to be much higher demand for the physical stuff. I've heard estimates that we could see a fair price of silver at $600/ounce, or even over $1,000 based on its usage and the amount that's getting mined as compared to gold and other base metals.
If people are using gold and silver as a medium of exchange and you already have it, then you're going to be ahead of the curve. The premiums would still be built into the trade cost at that point, but you're likely better off if you already own it.
I'm not putting money into metals that I think I'll need in the next 2-3 years, likely much longer. I don't want to get stuck in a position where I'm forced to liquidate at potentially lower rates and take a loss. This is long-term hedging for me. I can't give you investment advice, but my opinion is that even with paying premiums (preferably low ones), metals will still do well in helping protect your wealth.
Wow, great insights my friend! Definately some good perspectives and I have to agree with you on all of your points. Thank you for the great comment that all us stackers need to be reminded of!
I have been collecting coins for more than 40 years and I have done what you said ( “hot salt water in aluminum foil with baking soda added” trick) in many of my junk silver, just to get them a little shiny. Only my junk silver!
Any coin with any numismatic value, even very ugly, will remain untouched.
Good advice. I have not been willing to pay much more than spot as I haven’t figured out how to sell silver and retain any premium. I am not selling anything but until I know I could if I wanted and be able to get the premium back (and maybe a return on it) I don’t feel comfortable paying more than I have to. Where do you sell to retain the premium?
I don't intend to sell my collections. They are a gift for my future grandchildren. I intend to trade my bullion silver for gold when the ratio reaches 50 or to sell it when the spot, that has been dropping for years, start to move up and reach around $30 an ounce. That is the price that gives me a good gain.
I once removed some red tarnish from an older panda coin (worth 90 EUR) with the soda etc but my bullion with milkspots (i,.e. maples) I leave as is. As you I did read the theory and it comes down to "elektrolysus" that baking soda and alufoil trick. The more contact with the (wrinkled) alu the better.
At least you know that you should never do any of these processes to clean coins that have a minimum numismatic value, because this minimum numismatic value will go to zero numismatic value after the cleaning...
Hehe, I knew this would a controversial post! Thanks for the comment!
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Wow cilver coin you own made this coin . I am really can not immagine . Thanks for sharing @brian.rrr