cleaning coins

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Well, I'll give 'em a try, then, since we're only talking < 20-year old cents.

 

The other thing to remember is:

A) The "adverse reaction" requires the presence of both water and direct sunlight to happen, and

B) The sole source of this information is a study funded by a company whose product competes with acetone in the market.

 

LOL!

I haven't mentioned this before, but my former college roommate is a retiring chemistry professor at a large state university in the midwest; he was an organic chemist who, along with another retired chemist friend of mine who was a researcher for a big drug company, the two have offered similar views as those expressed here. After hearing of my disappointment with acetone on my Peace Dollar Dr. Roommate suggested that I try citric acid. "As in grapefruit juice?" I asked, but have not heard back from either. What about that?

Edit: I should point out that both of those guys think that my Dollar must have been in contact with something that was rusting for several years.

 

Remember, originality is key. Citric acid is an excellent cleaner, except....you don't "clean" coins. You conserve them when intervention is the only intelligent solution to prevent further damage. Anything beyond that is technically (it can be done, in certain rare cases, without an expert being able to tell) a Very Bad Thing.™

 

^ OK

 

For those pennies, first try GENTLY peeling the tape off, there may be no residue. For the citric acid, lemon juice as a cleaning (ahem...conserving) agent is relatively common for silver ancient coins. For a nice "modern" coin like yours...I dunno.

 

The most important point to his words is the hint that there isn't any "generality" to deciding what to do with a coin. Yes, there are times and places where straight-up cleaning is advisable and accepted. There are other cases where it can be done and it'll be a good thing for the coin. In the other 98% of cases (Ancients excepted from that percentage), it will ruin the collector value of the coin, rendering it useless to the effort to preserve history.

And the question of what to do can only be answered on a case-by-case basis.

 

GDJMSP, advised us that: "People seem to forget that even though the internet has a wealth of information available, there is still several times that amount of information that is not available on the internet."

I'll add that everything you read about anything on the Internet may not be 100% accurate.

 

@BadThad and @Richard M. Renneboog might or might not agree with me, but chemical knowledge aside, it is hard to argue with observation. This observation might be interpreted wrongly, but it is still valid. I see no reason copper would react with acetone under normal conditions, but I really don't know all the chemistry of either of these two substances, nor can I speak to the contaminants in the acetone or on the coin.

 

Given my disappointment with the results of my Peace Dollar immersed in acetone for ten days, I don't think I'll be messing with any other coins. I followed @Kentucky 's directions to the letter about the rinse in warm water then a little bath in distilled, but the dark discoloration is still there. Yeah, it might have removed just a bit of the darkness, but since I haven't actually compared my before photo to the after, I can't say for sure. I think I'm going to follow the sage advice of @SuperDave on this and leave well enough alone. I'll spend that time trying to perfect my coin photo skills instead.

I just don't know what to do with this pint of acetone and gallon of distilled water, meanwhile.

 

Here's the "before" photo again. Depending on the ease of acquisition, i. e. where to buy, I may go the commercial coin dip route. But let's hear your judgement on this before I try it... you, too, @SuperDave .

 

GDJMSP wrote: "The main reason that people dispute or argue about what I say about acetone and copper is that they have not seen it happen. In other words they may have rinsed plenty of copper coins in acetone and never seen one turn weird colors later on.
Well I get that, but there's a long, long list of things that a whole lot of people have never seen - but that does not mean they don't or can't happen.
Others will say that science says it can't or shouldn't happen. And yeah, I get that too, but there is also a long, long list of things that have and do happen that science says cannot or should not happen.
Still others will say that the weird colors are not caused by the acetone itself but something else that is on the coin. Well OK, maybe they're right, maybe it is. But so what ? The point is - it happens!"

Read the above and burn it into your brain as it is 100% true.


LA_Geezer, posted: "Given my disappointment with the results of my Peace Dollar immersed in acetone for ten days, I don't think I'll be messing with any other coins."

GDJMSP wrote: "Your disappointment was caused by one thing - acetone is not what you should have used."

Now as for your two coins, the ONLY one that needs conservation is the 1928. Parts of it are GREEN. That's the only thing that needs to be removed. Purchase some MS-70. Then PM me when you get it. Basically, we are going to dilute it and put it on the coin.

If you are not comfortable with DIY, send it to NCS or ICG for conservation as IMO, the coin is worth saving. ICG does not charge for this service if only a few coins are involved.

 

Acetone is an organic solvent, and as Doug has already mentioned, is only good for removing organic deposits. Your Peace Dollars look to have toning/tarnishing/whatever on them, and that is a non-organic process which acetone will not touch.

Which is one of the recommendations for using acetone in the first place....

 

Try keeping them as a pocket piece for a couple months. Will do wonders for the dark one.