how best to clean silver coins

this tells the story as I need to clean one side of this coin its silver coin:



was thinking silvo or bi card soda

keen to find out the year it was minted prob circa 1850's its a british 3 pence young head with Victoria brittanniar reg f:d one one side

this is the other side:



its the top coin

Hi Yellowmellow,
The best is NOT to clean them as they lose value.

I think by the size of the coin you most likely have shilling.

Ten cents Australia
Value 0.10 AUD
Mass 5.65 g
Diameter 23.60 mm
Thickness 2.00 mm
Edge milled
Composition 75%Copper,
25% Ni
Years of minting 1966–presen

Victoria Shillings

Queen Victoria had three main types of Shilling struck during her Reign, these were the Young Head Type, the Jubilee Head Type and the Old or Widow Head Type. All of Victoria's Shillings faced to the left, they were made of .925 fine silver, they all had a diameter of 23.5 millimeters and all weighed approximately 5.65 grams.

Young Head Variety 1 (1838 to 1839)
Date Mintage
1838 1,956,240
1839 5,666,760

Young Head Variety 2 (1839 to 1867)
Date Mintage
1860 1,671,120
1861 1,382,040
1862 954,360
1863 859,320
1864 4,518,360
1865 5,619,240
1866 4,989,600
1867 2,166,120
Date Mintage
1850 685,080
1851 470,071
1852 1,306,574
1853 4,256,188
1854 552,414
1855 1,368,499
1856 3,168,000
1857 2,562,120
1858 3,108,600
1859 4,561,920
Date Mintage
1839 Inc in 1839 Abv
1840 1,639,440
1841 875,160
1842 2,094,840
1843 1,465,200
1844 4,466,880
1845 4,082,760
1846 4,031,280
1848 1,041,480
1849 645,480

Young Head Variety 3 (1867 to 1879)
Date Mintage
1867 Inc in 1867 Abv
1868 3,330,360
1869 736,560
1870 1,467,471
1871 4,910,010
1872 8,897,781
1873 6,489,598
1874 5,503,747
1875 4,353,983
1876 1,057,487
1877 2,980,703
1878 3,127,131
1879 3,611,507

Young Head Variety 4 (1879 to 1887)
Date Mintage
1879 Inc in 1879 Abv
1880 4,842,786
1881 5,255,332
1882 1,611,786
1883 7,281,450
1884 3,923,993
1885 3,336,527
1886 2,086,819
1887 4,034,133

By condition of the reverse of the coin it would be very very hard to find out the date but its from 1838 -1887.
Can you measure and weight the coin please?

GoldEN

hi all,

yeah golden the size is 18 mm across maybe not be a shilling not sure but the year looks like its 1851 as I have it in bi carb soda and olive oil

its strange how one sides different to the other side

the mixture used is at the moment bi carb soda and laundry powder with boiling water tim

before:



after:

its the best cleaning job I could do anyone got more effective cleaning methods as what I have used

G'day mellow ,

Good find , the side that is viewable is very well worn , the other side may be worn away to just a
shiny finish with no date visible , I have a few like that

Electrolysis usually get will get off most of the tarnish & gunk .

I find this common with silvers, i believe exposure to fire, or high heat tends to make most old silvers look like that.
Rub some spit on it, wrap it aluminum foil, wrap tight, (watch the odor that comes off, smells like egg gas) let sit for a few minutes, take out coin, give it a nice rub with some Bicarb, damp.
Bling, .
As mentioned Electrolysis, works great, but you can pit them.



Real hard to read coins I find using a standard paper scanner works well. Crank up the DPI then zoom in, sometimes mucking around with photo effects can work as well.