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Recent Articles 9-Nov-2022

The Australian One Cent

Walter Eigner The Australian One Cent is a keenly collected series owing to its attractive design and relative affordability. It was first issued in 1966 and continued as a regular issue until 1991. Due to its popularity, the coin was re-issued in 2006, 2010, and 2016 as part of collector sets. 26-Aug-2021

Cleaning Coins

Walter Eigner Cleaning coins is one of the most divisive issues in coin collecting though most of the contention stems from a misunderstanding of the problems with cleaning coins. Dealers typically advise new collectors that cleaning will devalue their coins then they go ahead and happily sell cleaned coins. 22-Feb-2020

Rare Pre-Decimal Coins

Anna Fhaumnuaypol Pre-decimals are coins that everyone, whether you are a collector or just starting out, usually have in their collection which have the potential to truly worth a lot of money. It represents a very interesting look into the past since when it was first introduced in Australia in 1910. 25-Jan-2020

1942 and 1943 Bombay Mint Copper

Anna Fhaumnuaypol During wartime, the demand for pennies and half pennies increased immensely due to pay requirements of Australian and American forces within Australia. However, the availability of metals, especially copper and silver used for coins, was in shortage due to it being used for the war effort for munitions. Moreover, people were continuing to hoard silver and copper coins in money boxes for fear of instability resulting in banks running out of coins to function their day-to-day routine. 22-Nov-2019

Collecting Old Australian Coins

Walter Eigner Collecting old Australian coins provides a fascinating glimpse into Australia's history through its circulating coinage. While there is a general impression that old coins are too expensive for new collectors to collect that couldn't be further from the truth. For just a few dollars you could obtain a later year mint-state pre-decimal coin, and for less than the cost of a modern proof set you can purchase a George V (1911-1936) pre-decimal coin. 1-Nov-2019

The case for certified coins

Walter Eigner The debate on certified coins vs uncertified coins has been going on in Australia since PCGS first reached the mainstream Australian market back in 2008. While today most Australian coin collectors favour PCGS graded coins, a recent incident has reaffirmed the importance of and buying certified coins and valuing them first, especially when buying on-line. 5-Oct-2019

Valuing Old Coins

Walter Eigner By far the most common question we get asked is "what is my coin worth?" Perhaps you found a few old coins which is why you're here reading this article. Maybe you're a seasoned collector already looking to get more precise values for your coins than the printed catalogues can offer. Perhaps you're an investor looking to value your coin portfolio. This guide will cover all of that. 28-Sep-2019

The Silver of Edward VII

Walter Eigner Although Australia had been a nation since 1901, it wasn't until 1910 that her first official coins were produced. While the Melbourne mint was producing sovereigns and half sovereigns at the time, these were technically Imperial British coins. The first coins issued specifically for Australia were struck in silver and of the denominations threepence, sixpence, shilling, and florin. These featured the Australian Coat of Arms on the reverse and the crowed bust of King Edward VII on the obverse. 10-Sep-2019

Sydney Mint Half Sovereigns

Walter Eigner The discovery of gold in the colony New South Wales in 1851 prompted a surge of immigration among prospectors seeking wealth in the new colony. This lead to the production of half sovereigns in Sydney as of 1855. Only 3.3 million half sovereigns were produced from 1855 to 1869 resulting in individual years being very scarce and valuable. To add to this, the high bullion content of Sydney mint half sovereigns, which were alloyed with silver, compared with their British counterparts, which were alloyed with copper...
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Cleaning Coins

Reasons for cleaning

That being said, the notion that all cleaning is bad is not accurate either. It depends greatly on what cleaning work was done.

Removal of foreign material

If your coin has a piece of sticky tape on it and you remove it, is that considered cleaning? You are just removing foreign material without affecting the coin at all. This is perfectly acceptable, and this extends to any method that exclusively removes foreign material.

A common example of this is removing PVC residue using acetone. Acetone doesn't react with metals, but it dissolves PVC, so this doesn't affect the coin. If, however, you wipe the acetone from the coin or wash it off under pressured water, you will damage the top layer of the coin and is therefore considered cleaning.

Similarly, many other methods used to remove foreign material from the coin such as olive oil or wiping/brushing the coin will certainly damage the too by chemically removing the top layer of the surface. Removing foreign substances is only acceptable if it doesn't affect the surface of the coin.

Removal of toning

This is a debated area in which proponents of dipping claim that as a toned surface is chemically altered with foreign substances (even if naturally affected) and therefore foreign making it acceptable to remove.

While it is true that toning is chemically altered surfaces, the surfaces are still made up of the original metal of the coin, so we consider this type of cleaning unacceptable as it is stripping away the top layer of the coin.

It is not always possible to detect as chemical dips strip a very thin layer away from the coin evenly. This contrasts with mechanical cleaning which, even if done very finely, affects the exposed surfaces more leading to the classic lustre in legends but not in the fields look.

Conservation

Conservation involves the removal of foreign material that is likely to cause further damage such as corrosive substances. This is a type of cleaning if it damages the coin but is often done as the damage done by leaving the substance on the coin is worse than the one-off damage done by cleaning. Such a coin, if damaged, would be considered cleaned making the coin less desirable but the practice itself is accepted among collectors.

A cleaned half sovereign

Notice how there is cartwheel lustre in the legends, noticeable around DEI, the date, RA of GRATIA, and CT of VICTORIA. This is because the surfaces within the legend are protected so mechanical cleaning disproportionately affects the exposed fields more.

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