I just purchased coinone, haven't gotten it yet, but received an email from Homer which mentioned soft coins may handle better for parts of the routine.

Michael, thanks, couldn't have done it without you.

Ok I got Some Clorox Bleach and couldn't find Whites Polish but I found, Weiman Royal Sterling Silver Polish. Would that work? And how long again?

They get dark pretty fast, just a couple of minutes, keep an eye on them.
I didn't have any silver polish, I just used ashes,

Ashes? What do you mean?

Ashes are an old fashioned home made metal polish, mild and not very abrasive. After I darkened ny coins I rubbed the highlights with ashes to lighten them, because I didn't have any commercial silver polish. It's a little tedious, but it works well. Wood ashes are best, if you have a fireplace, but cigar or cigarette ashes work just fine, they just stink a little bit more.

OK I'm started to understand. So how are you just paying attention to the Highlighed parts?

OK after working on my coins with the above method this is what I got. The picture is not that good but the coins look nice.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f265/paisa23/DSCN0726.jpg

I just tried this with a single Walking Liberty, using bleach and ash. The result is very nice, and I am going to experiment with some other coins too.

Has anyone tried the smae process with the English Copper coin?

Yes, nothing happened.

I think this only works for silver, or silvery, metals.

The ashes are a very gentle polish, when you work it on the coin surface you will find it cleans the tarnish off the highlights first. just take your time until you get the amount of contrast you like.

I was having the same results using on-camera flash, try indirect daylight, it gives you better contrast. I can see they darkened nicely though, they look good.

Beautiful. I did the bleach trick and came out great, but I seemed to over polish with the silver polish. I think I'm gonna use the ash method. Dstachowiak, those coins are beautiful. They look pretty "hard" are they in good shape and close to uncirc?? I've only seen warn morgans and didn't realize such good condition coins could even look like that!! Thanks for all the tips!!

Stevie D

No offense Stevie but I noticed you keep spelling worn as "warn".

Stevie D, I was up in the middle of the night and started to answer this but I guess I never hit send LOL.
Yes the coin dealer I got them from had a box of 1921 Morgans, all in good shape but circulated, and not of collectable quality because the 1921s are very common anyway, so unless they are brilliant uncirculated collectors aren't that interested. I got them for somewhere between $10-15 each, a little more than bullion silver but not outrageous.

I have now "aged" three WL half dollars, which look wonderful. Photos would not show the results very well, but each was left for different amounts of time in the bleach (one for 10 minutes). I used ash as indicated and toothpaste to get rid of any imperfections, and the results are better than I expected.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing the technique.

Paisa, you will not go wrong buying a deans set. I bought mine about a year and a half ago. You might consider purchasing a matched copper silver, a shaved copper to match (the coppers have smooth sides), a matched remilled flipper, and an expanded shell at the same time. Jamie will ensure that all will fit perfectly with the unexpanded shell and will match in look and feel. Having the expanded shell will cover your unexpanded shell. This will cover just about all effects with one coin set. If you cant afford to get all of those when you buy your deans set, then when you can afford to get the other ones, send your deans set back to him and he will match them to your existing set. At any rate, it is a set that will give you plenty of use.

Sounds like something I might have to save up to do.

DStachowiak I really like your aged look. I want to try to do that, can you PM me with the steps. As far as ashes go?