Refining 50% British silver coins - any Londoners?

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Anonymous

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I have a bunch of 50% predecimal silver collected over the years and would like to refine some of it into 999.

At the moment UK refiners either won't touch 50% silver or offer something ridiculous like 50% of the spot value of the pure silver.

Are there any Brits on this forum who know what they are doing and might be willing to show me the way? I don't have a scientific background and don't feel too confident about handling the acids and equipment required.

Thank you
 
I'm not a brit. But here is an easy way that you can test in 1 or 2 coins and then if you like the results do it in a larger scale:

1-Grab your 50% silver and drop it in a bucket with nitric acid, red fumes inmediately appear, drop a little Hydrogen peroxide and a little ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) or glycerin. Fumes dissappear and are replaced by oxygen (breathing these fumes will be quite enjoyable). After the coins are dissolved drop some table salt in the bucket, and a white dust drops (silver chloride), after it settles, drop some more salts till no clouds form. Separate the liquid, filter and discard, wash the white powder thorougly till no more blue color is present and the washes are transparent.

Now you have 2 choices (there are more, but keep it simple):

1-Add sodium hidroxide and a little hydrogen peroxide and stir. Wait till all white powder converts to metal silver. Wash and rinse the metal. Melt.

2-Add a little sulphuric acid and stir with a piece of scrap iron. Wait till all white powder converts to metal silver (It may take a day or more, depending how much you stir and how much is the surface of the iron in contact with the white powder). Wash and rinse the metal. Melt.
 
This is how I do them.

I put the coins in a 2ltr pyrex beaker.

I then pour in 250ml of distilled water (ionised will do, £3.60 5ltrs Halfords)
Don't use our tap water!
Then pour in approx 50ml of Nitric and wait for a reaction.
Brown fumes should appear along with a bit of bubbling.
Wait for the reaction to slow and add another 50ml.
Keep going until the coins have dissolved or you have 500ml of solution in total.

I then filter the solution and keep any undissolved metal for the next batch.
Then i place a clean copper bar into the solution and leave it overnight.
In the morning you should have a nice grey carpet at the bottom of the beaker.
There's your Silver, just filter and rinse.
If the solution is still a greenish colour, you haven't got all your Silver out.
The solution should be a deep blue colour.
The Nitric may become exhausted so drip a tiny amount of acid in to get it going again

Take a look at Lazersteves site and under the Silver section, there's a video showing the copper cementing the Silver.

This must be done outside or in a fume cupboard, don't breathe those brown fumes.
Also, make sure you wear rubber gloves!
The Silver Nitrate that forms will stain your skin black for a week or so if you get any on you.

Once you've finished, there are ways to get your copper back but that's another story.

Buzz
 
Sorry for the delay in replying. Thank you both very much. I shall do some further reading.
 
I'm in the same boat as you Ironrod12, a Londoner, lots of pre-demical junk, no scientfic background, trying to learn as much as I can before I start refining.
I only found this forum a few days ago and I am very impressed by the knowledge and helpfulness of members here.
Until I start refining, I'll just keep studying.
 
Im also from UK with most of my silver in pre decimal coins, personally I think its really stupid to melt or refine your coins, numinastics carry a premium over spot, you may not find that is the case right now with coins that arent in great condition but thats only because spot price is moving up fast, once things calm down coins will carry hefty premiums again.
 
If your really adamant about destroying things with the queens face on which btw is illegal, I would suggest pre 1980 pennies instead, their melt value(copper) is double their face value. And you will find that on ebay copper bullion sells for around 30X spot value.
 
download the E-Book from my signature and read it will answer most if not all your questions
 
If you want to keep breathing oxygen I would skip this step.

Fumes dissappear and are replaced by oxygen (breathing these fumes will be quite enjoyable).
Click to expand...

Hydrogen peroxide is depleted in the reaction and the effervescence can't be good for you either.

I get that you may have included this as a joke but you don't know who may take your advice and try it.
 
sebastionay said:
Im also from UK with most of my silver in pre decimal coins, personally I think its really stupid to melt or refine your coins, numinastics carry a premium over spot, you may not find that is the case right now with coins that arent in great condition but thats only because spot price is moving up fast, once things calm down coins will carry hefty premiums again.
Click to expand...

I don't think its a terrible idea to refine coins in very bad condition and with common dates. Although I agree some coins in good condition with rare dates do go for crazy premiums. I win a fair amount of auctions on fleabay by bidding up to of 80% of spot on bulk lots. I rarely win auctions on single coins or small lots at those kind of prices as the higher number of bidders push up the price.

sebastionay said:
If your really adamant about destroying things with the queens face on which btw is illegal, I would suggest pre 1980 pennies instead, their melt value(copper) is double their face value. And you will find that on ebay copper bullion sells for around 30X spot value.
Click to expand...

Contrary to popular belief, defacing the Queen is not illegal. It's one of those laws people think exist but no-one can reference it to any case or parliamentary act, because it doesn't exist. It is true that defacing the Queen can be regarded as treason, but only if done as an act of treason with intent. Defacing the Queen in itself is not illegal. But I guess this is all moot for me because I don't have any junk silver coins with the Queen's head.
Defacing currency that is currently in circulation is illegal. This includes bending, scratching, marking etc. This has nothing to do with the Queen, but to do with protecting the monetary value of coins, so people couldn't shave/skim the coins for its metal and return them into circulation. In Victorian times the law was further enforced as people use to advertise their companies/products on coins.
Destroying current circulating coins is illegal of course as it would mess up the treasury's currency ponzi scheme.
 
munchies said:
sebastionay said:
Im also from UK with most of my silver in pre decimal coins, personally I think its really stupid to melt or refine your coins, numinastics carry a premium over spot, you may not find that is the case right now with coins that arent in great condition but thats only because spot price is moving up fast, once things calm down coins will carry hefty premiums again.
Click to expand...

I don't think its a terrible idea to refine coins in very bad condition and with common dates. Although I agree some coins in good condition with rare dates do go for crazy premiums. I win a fair amount of auctions on fleabay by bidding up to of 80% of spot on bulk lots. I rarely win auctions on single coins or small lots at those kind of prices as the higher number of bidders push up the price.

sebastionay said:
If your really adamant about destroying things with the queens face on which btw is illegal, I would suggest pre 1980 pennies instead, their melt value(copper) is double their face value. And you will find that on ebay copper bullion sells for around 30X spot value.
Click to expand...

Contrary to popular belief, defacing the Queen is not illegal. It's one of those laws people think exist but no-one can reference it to any case or parliamentary act, because it doesn't exist. It is true that defacing the Queen can be regarded as treason, but only if done as an act of treason with intent. Defacing the Queen in itself is not illegal. But I guess this is all moot for me because I don't have any junk silver coins with the Queen's head.
Defacing currency that is currently in circulation is illegal. This includes bending, scratching, marking etc. This has nothing to do with the Queen, but to do with protecting the monetary value of coins, so people couldn't shave/skim the coins for its metal and return them into circulation. In Victorian times the law was further enforced as people use to advertise their companies/products on coins.
Destroying current circulating coins is illegal of course as it would mess up the treasury's currency ponzi scheme.
Click to expand...

If you have a coin in really bad condition, get a bottle of pure silver plate compound and a rough towel, after rubbing it in with a rough towel for a good while your coin will be in good condition again.
 

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