Does anybody know a method to make “worn, smooth ”Silverdollars ? Daryl suggested to use a whetstone and making figure 8 like motions with the coin on the whetstone. But I think this is not the method to achieve such nice “worn” coins as used by Homer Liwag or Chris Kenner ? Any ideas on that ?

One way is to go to coins shops and look at what they call "junk" coins. There is another thread on this in the Café you might search.

Hi bep and welcome to the Café.

One word about making your own..."Don't."

This is an old topic as to methods to create "soft coins" like what you saw from Homer Liwag. Incidentally, the reason for these coins is for the property of being silent, and they can also feel really good in the hands too.

It is not an easy thing to do to develop you're own well-worn coins and doubt if Homer or Kenner did, and most people don't and or can't because of the tediousness of the process or lack of the proper machinery to get around the greater effort of it all. Basically, it just ain't worth it most times. So the best way is to track these coins down through ebay, coin shops, coin shows, etc. You can usually find Junk Morgans/silver dollars that are worn and perhaps match them up as best you can. I've actually done this and was able to put together a good set in a couple of weeks time but it was an effort. Typically coins wear down over time, a long, long time. But these sorts of coins already exist out there, so no need to make your own as it's not an easy thing to do to begin with. You might also get a set of soft coins from coin craftsman, or make a request to buy here on the Café...Someone might be willing to sell you an old set they're not using anymore. I came across that once or twice in the Buy & Sell section here. When you get them from craftsman (who have all sorts of equipment to help in this process), you will pay above board for them but they will look really good, like twins, quads even. When you match a set yourself, well they might look more like they are at best all from the same family so to speak. You come to realize after a while that spectators don't care much about such things as looking exactly alike as long as they look pretty much the same. Manipulations of the coins will make them look exactly alike in the eyes of the spec. So go look around to see what you can see, you might get lucky. Anything would be better than whetstone and figure-8 motions ad-infinitim.

Again, Welcome.

Also, "soft" coins can only be silver, meaning you cannot have soft Ike dollars. Commonly you will see soft Morgan and/or Peace dollars.

I mention this because I have seen posters here ask about how to "soften" their Ike dollars.

Jim

Very fine sandpaper finishing with 3 different textures of steel wool does the trick. I used this method on Clad Dollars and it worked awesome. Looks like regular worn coins...no sound at all. Tons of elbow grease is needed though. Would take a picture but not sure if the camera will do them justice. Will see a little later

Mr. Biro had mentioned this, and I wanted to add the term numismatists use for these coins (I was married to a rather cute numismatist for 5 years)

You want to ask for "cull" coins. Usually all you pay for in these is the value of the metal as they are otherwise worthless to a collector due to the lack of relief on the coin.

Vlad

BEST advice ever given on the subject!

Mr Biro and Vlad make great suggestions, go to your local coin shop (also found in Pawn and Junk shops from time to time) and ask to rummage through their "Cull" or "Slick" coins! I've put together all my coin sets from cull boxes and even taken my "special" coins with me for matching! Saved me time, money and best of all elbow grease!

MMc

This topic is continued at How do I Tarnish and Soften coins???

See also:

Do Silver-Plated Coins Tarnish???

How To Tarnish Silver Coins

Smoothening your coins

Smooth Coins

Worn coins

These are for copper coins:

Aging Coins

Aging a coin?

Tarnish Copper Coins

Tarnish copper coins