A few issues ago we discussed the disaster known as Coin Cleaning. Don’t do it!
Shiny is Bad - The temptation is almost irresistible. Amateur numismatists (coin collectors) think they can improve the eye appeal of an old coin by cleaning it. “If I make it look nice and shiny, it will be worth more!” Nope. Not true. Won’t work.
Seasoned collectors abhor cleaned coins, and they will never buy one. This sends the value of cleaned coins into the basement. Why? Because someone is trying to make a coin look better than it really is, and people don’t like that.
Check our 3-coin graphic above. You don’t want shiny. You want frosty.
A new coin leaves the mint with a frosty, lustrous appearance. This is because the minting process produces microscopic striations that radiate from the center of a coin out to its edge. The striations reflect light to give a frosty effect. Advanced collectors like to slowly roll and tilt the coin to make the reflections rotate like a cartwheel. This guarantees that the coin is newly minted, or fully uncirculated, or in Mint State condition.
As soon as an uncirculated coin hits circulation, the microscopic striations wear away and the frost disappears, leaving the familiar look of circulated coinage. A circulated coin can have wonderful eye appeal, it is just not in lofty Mint State condition.
Once gone, the microscopic striations cannot be brought back. Crooks try to manufacture their own striations using a technique known as whizzing, but whizzing looks unnatural and is easy to detect. More often than not, novice collectors and non-collectors tend to break out the silver polish (or other corrosive chemical) and destroy a coin’s value by “bringing up the shine.” There is a big difference between a shiny, polished coin and one that has been worn down by normal circulation. Shiny is Bad.
Two ways of escape - If you have a valuable coin that looks really grimy and dirty, it is usually safe to try mild soap and warm water. This removes surface dirt and leaves the coin metal untouched. Mild soap and warm water will not make a coin look shiny, so that’s good. Remember, Shiny is Bad.
The second way of escape is something known as coin conservation. This is coin cleaning done by professionals for a fee. It is akin to processes used by museum curators to make antique pieces look more presentable. A good place to find coin conservation is at Numismatic Conservation Service.
Now, on to Mushy.
Mushy is Bad - Look at the picture below labelled “Ultimate Mush!”
This coin is clearly a fake. No self-respecting government would issue such a coin. Indeed, it is a fake 8 escudos from a Spanish colony in the New World. You can check out this link for a picture of a genuine 8 escudos. Genuine coins are very valuable and very beautiful.
That’s why “Mushy is Bad.” Counterfeit coins have mushy appearance. The minting process for genuine coins produces sharp, needled, pointed patterns and inscriptions. Many counterfeiting processes produce blunt, dull, rounded patterns and inscriptions. Learn to tell the difference. Detect, and don’t buy, counterfeit coins!
There are non-mushy, sharp counterfeits. But, if it’s mushy, it’s fake.
Crooks make counterfeit coins usually by (1) casting them or (2) striking them. Except for a few types of coins that are supposed to be cast (e.g., Chinese cash coins), it is pretty easy to detect cast counterfeits. Mushy patterns and mushy inscriptions naturally come out of the casting process, and sometimes you can see tiny bubbles in the coin from air trapped in the mold as the molten metal is poured in.
Struck counterfeits are more difficult to detect. Check these two Shanghai Taels.
Pictures of the bottom coin were sent to us by a guy named Chaim. Can you see the departures in the inscriptions between top and bottom coins? Actually, the Chinese characters are virtually identical. But the genuine coin has needle-sharp characters, while the suspect coin has blunted, spread-out characters. Remember, Mushy is Bad.
Aside: This is a super interesting coin. The Tai Ping Rebellion in China led to the hoarding of silver and Spanish 8 Reales circulated in Shanghai and displaced Chinese government issues. In 1856, the Shanghai authorities authorized silversmiths to issue coinage in an attempt to replace the Spanish 8 Reales. The firms Wong Yung Sheng, Ching Cheng Chee, and Yu Shen Sheng were granted permission to issue coinage in the denominations of One Tael and 5 Mace. This was a short-lived coinage, as the monthly output was only about 3,000 pieces and was not large enough to meet the demand. Today, the coin is so rare that the genuine specimen at the top of our photo sold for $90,000 US dollars during a 2022 auction.
There is an excellent chance that Chaim’s coin is a fake. We encouraged him to submit his coin to a third-party authentication service, just to make sure.
How would you classify these 1798 silver dollars? One is real. One is fake.
Leave your evaluation in the comments, and we’ll discuss it.
I think the darker 1798 is the fake... In the past few years I've come across two fake coins. They were both a dark metal that looked just like the darker 1798. I don't know this for sure, but it's been my experience so far with fake coins.