Coin Care Chemical

All you need to do is read the whole paragraph.

A spot results when a concentrated amount of an oxidizing substance is allowed to remain on the surface of a coin. Most spots take time to grow. A coin might have been contaminated long before you acquired it. Removing spots is nearly impossible. Trying to will generally result in more overall harm than good. When spots are found the best strategy is to suppress further growth. There may be other products that work as well, but I have had success using Blue Ribbon coin conditioner and preservative. When applied to the surface of a copper or bronze coin, this light oil-like substance will leave a thin protective film and a glossy appearance. This same product is good for removing PVC, as well as other forms of slime and dirt, from all copper and bronze coins. Hopefully the following is common knowledge, yet I feel compelled to mention this: Copper and bronze coins should never be dipped. Liquid tarnish remover will not remove spots and your coin will end up an unnatural -- and to the experienced numismatist, ugly -- orange color. Dipping a copper or bronze coin nearly always ruins it!

Read the bold and underlined part. It seems pretty hard to argue that he is not talking about using Blue Ribbon to suppress further growth of those spots, especially since that is precisely what he says.

I guess that is a matter of interpretation. I consider a coin with spots, and one with the potential to grow more spots, to be a problem coin of sorts. And since the author specifically calls for the use of Blue Ribbon on coins with spots to specifically prevent the growth of more spots, it seems he considers those coins with spots to be something of a problem coin as well. Otherwise why would he be making a suggestion of what to use to solve that problem ?

And PCGS considers coins with spots to be a problem coin of sorts as well since their own published grading standards specifically say that coin with spots should be graded no higher than MS65.

Nor did I. But the fact remains that PCGS specifically considers Blue Ribbon to be a substance that will cause a coin to be put in a problem coin slab.

 

Yes, the article is positive regarding Blue Ribbon, but only for it's suggested use of preventing the growth of more spots on a coin that already has spots. In no way does the author suggest that Blue Ribbon should be used on problem free coins. He merely suggest it be used to prevent an existing problem from getting worse.

As I have said many times, you can find articles written by many of the big names in numismatics about doing a lot of different things that are considered to be taboo when it comes to coins. You can find articles about using soap and water with a tooth brush, or articles about using baking soda, salt, lemon juice, olive oil, and any number of other things.

But in a lot of these cases the people reading these articles misinterpret the articles and make assumptions. The authors are often talking about using these taboo practices under very specific circumstances. That does not mean that they are saying it is OK to use these practices in or under all and any circumstances.

Sure, it might be one thing to use soap and water and a toothbrush on a very worn coin of no value whatsoever that is covered in dirt and grime. But that does not mean that you should use soap and water and a toothbrush on a valuable MS or nearly MS coin to remove dirt and grime.

And, the time that the article was written also matters in some cases. In some older books you can find all sorts of suggestions that nobody in their right mind would ever use today. It was not many years ago after all that harsh cleaning was looked upon as being the thing to do to your coins.

A perfect example of misinterpretation.

 

Really ? Hmmm, then you need to watch that video that you posted a link to.

 

You can't see the bottle in that video that is labeled Blue Ribbon ? Look at 3:50 in the video.

Every one of those bottles are things that will get a coin in a Genuine slab.

E

 

OK, pretty much everybody knows that, and has known it for decades. But I fail to see what that has to do with what we are talking about.

 

I think it would take more than just a dip in acetone, in fact I wouldn't even use acetone to remove Blue Ribbon. I'd use xylene because it will do a better job with oils. And yes, IF you get all of the Blue Ribbon off of the coin then yes they will slab it.

But it is important to note and understand that when someone talks about dipping a coin they are not talking about dipping the coin in acetone, distilled water, or xylene. They are talking about dipping the coin in a commercial coin dip - a mix of chemicals that contain an acid. All coin dips contain an acid. That is why Don Willis worded his comments the way he did.

 

For the record, there are a great many coins that have been treated with Blue Ribbon that are currently in NGC and PCGS slabs. That is not to say they belong in those slabs. Rather it says that the TPGs were merely not aware that the coins had Blue Ribbon on them. In other words, it is possible to fool the graders sometimes.

But should any of those coins with Blue Ribbon on them be examined by these new machines that detect the chemicals then those coins would be placed in Genuine or Details slabs and the TPG would honor their guarantees.

 

So these coins you used to test PCGS, did you submit all of them under the Secure Plus grading tier ? If you did not, then you did not test them at all.

Nobody ever claimed or implied that rinsing a coin acetone would cause the coin to be placed in a Genuine slab.