Old British / Irish Coins

[patnor1011]

I would like to ask for opinions here. I bought some on car boot sale. Well I paid 160 euros and got coins with silver in them mostly british halfcrowns 50% silver and irish halfcrowns 750/1000. In yesterday price I have 240 euros worth of silver there. Seller said he can get me more and sell them to me even cheaper :twisted:

Here is my dilemma. I cant decide if try to process them to get silver out (dont know what process can be the best) or to leave them as they are because their silver content is known as they were legal tender... Is there somebody from England to help me decide? What is the best way to clean them to make them shiny silver again? Some of them are bit dirty... Is that small sonic yoke for cleaning jewelery good for coins too?
http://www.uxsight.com/product/12178/cordless-sonic-advanced-cleaning-technology-jewelry-cleaner.html
Or what? Vinegar? Toothpaste?

 

[patnor1011]

I partially answered my cleaning question as I do not care about historical value but silver and this looks as the fastest way to do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_1kotDLonM&feature=related

 

[martyn111]

Personally I would leave them as is, don't even bother to clean them, as you have said they are a known purity, they have a known value and could be worth more than their metal value to collectors.
If you want a quick return on your money Fleecebay them, I have collected British Silver coins for a while now, and trying to buy them at or below their metal value on ebay is almost impossible.
Just my half crowns worth!!!!

Having said that I know that Buzz refines British silver coins, he may chip in and give you good advice if you really want to try and refine some of your coins.

 

[g_axelsson]

Any rare coins that are cleaned is loosing value. All alterations of the surface is bad and uncleaned coins are "honest" coins. It tells you no one have tried to tamper with the coin.
If you would try to sell a cleaned coin without telling that it's been cleaned you could receive some negative feedback.

If you want to know if you have any rarities just send me a list of date and face value and I'll check in my coin book.
If there are any coins in near mint condition then they could also command a premium value even if they are from a common year.

Yeah, I collect old coins too. :mrgreen:

/Göran

 

[Buzz]

Hi Patnor,

I guess it all depends on why you are collecting them.

If it's for Silver investment, keep them as is. You have a known weight of Silver when you come to sell them on.
Don't clean them.

I tend to recover the Silver from mine as I want to learn how to refine Silver efficiently.
Problem is, when I melt the Silver into bars, I will have to get them assayed before selling them
as they are of an unknow purity to a potential buyer.

The method I use is 50/50 Nitric and distilled water, filter, cement out using copper sheets, rinse and melt.
I've got a copy of Steves latest Silver DVD so will be putting the bars through the cell when I get one built.

I don't know what it is about Silver but I much prefer it to Gold.

Regards
Buzz

 

[patnor1011]

Thanks to all. I am better say hoarding them as I can get them cheaper than silver spot and I am doing that becouse I decided to convert part of my savings into metal... And to be honest I preffer silver as you can get that cheaper and bigger amounts then gold. I have some gold too but just bumped in to this fella in car boot sale who said that he has buckets of them so I might get lucky. What I bought from him so far is 550g of pure silver in coins for 0.3 cent per gram when spot was 0.44... I asked him how much, even advised him about that there is silver in them but he was more concerned about coins with collectors value he was selling too. Those were not of much interest for him and he was very happy when I have paid what he asked. He promised to bring more and sell them to me cheaper to get rid of them... We will see...
Goran, if you are looking for some particular year pm me I have some english and irish halfcrowns and irish florins.
They have no collectors value so thats why I was tinking to clean them - just to make them look more silverish... It seems that it is time to buy steves silver cd... Looks like good investment if I will get more coins of that auld man...

 

[g_axelsson]

Thanks Patnor, ten years ago I would have taken you up on your offer, nowadays I try to narrow down and specialize. I'm mostly interested in Swedish possessional coinage, from the days when Sweden was a major power in Europe... Mainly between 1560 to 1815.

http://www.home.neab.net/gandalf/coins/possessions/index.htm

Arrr, there's gold in them pages!

:lol:

/Göran

 

[Bluegill]

You mention these coins have no collector value. Are they a really low grade? A lot of those coins, especially the Irish florins, have a numismatic value considerably higher than melt, even in some of the lower grades . Try buying them on ebay at melt. :mrgreen: Cleaning them would destroy their numismatic value.

Even if they are in really bad shape and lost their numismatic value, as others have mentioned, they do have a known fineness in their coin form.

If they are just bullion, you got an excellent price. I would definitely back the truck up if you could get more at those prices.

 

[patnor1011]

Thanks,
I realized that too when searched little bit on web. Anyway my pile of coins is growing and I will try to post few pictures here just for pleasure to see that old many times spend money...

Anyone here with some knowledge about Rupees minted by British in India? Mainly what years, denominations, pictures and silver content. I have found something on web but that is rather confusing a bit.

 

[metatp]

Thanks,
I realized that too when searched little bit on web. Anyway my pile of coins is growing and I will try to post few pictures here just for pleasure to see that old many times spend money...

Anyone here with some knowledge about Rupees minted by British in India? Mainly what years, denominations, pictures and silver content. I have found something on web but that is rather confusing a bit.

The 2 Annas coins from 1901-1917 are 91.7% silver and weigh 1.46g.
The 1/4 Rupee coins from 1901-1939 are 91.7% silver and weigh 2.92g.
The 1/4 Rupee coins from 1940-1945 are 50% silver and weigh 2.92g.
The 1/2 Rupee coins from 1901-1939 are 91.7% silver and weigh 5.83g.
The 1/2 Rupee coins from 1940-1945 are 50% silver and weigh 5.83g.
The 1 Rupee coins from 1901-1939 are 91.7% silver and weigh 11.66g.
The 1 Rupee coins from 1940-1945 are 50% silver and weigh 11.66g.

 

[patnor1011]

Thanks Tom,
I will have better look at them. They appears to be bigger what I saw last time when I was out buying coins from that old man.
Anyway it is a fun going through bucket full of coins and separating them by date. It is rewarding anyway as I can get silver way under spot and last sunday I even find two halfcrowns from 1911 which were sterling silver not bad to get roughly 26 grams for 4euro. Better than half price. The rest were regular halfcrowns from 1920 to 1945 so 50% silver and Irish florins 1928-1942 which were 75% silver. I have paid more for these but way less than spot. I told him about that he is selling them cheap and he said that he is ok with that so am I.
Old man is selling other coins in capsules, albums they have collectors value and are way more expensive. My merchandise was fished from boxes with junk coins mixed with silver ones from common years.

 

[Kats12]

To clean silver , the best non invasive method used in museums is toothbrush with chalk powder, and lot of patience. It removes all surface impurities without any damage to the silver.
After that you can process it as you wish without initial losses