If I'm posting in the wrong place, please move it. Someone gave me a bunch of coins that included many wheaties, indian head cents, and buffalo nickels. The problem is that he dried to clean them with what appears to be regular detergent a long time ago. He told me that he filled a bucket up with some sort of soapy liquid and left them there for quite sometime. He must have drained them off but left lots of soap residue on it (greenish-blue in color). These coins are already damaged. My question is this: How can I effectively clean these coins off without further damage? I'm not worried about their "value" because they are probably all crap now anyways. I just want to be able to look and them closer and figure out exactly what is there. I'm planning on just using a little water at first to just see if the stuff rubs off easily under running water. Are there any other suggestions?
The additional wear you will be adding probably won't degrade the coins any more than they already have been.
It could be a soap residue left on the coins, but since you say it is greenish blue it may also be verdigris. If it is - water isn't going to clean it off. But you can certainly try that first. You could also try acetone to clean them - not the fingernail polish remover, pure acetone you buy at a hardware store. And if that doesn't work either - then it's probably verdigris. THIS will remove it.
Sometimes a little soak in Olive oil, and a rinse with plain water will lift green marks. If you have many coins I would try a few things with one at a time and record what you do. You can hardly make them worse by the sound of it. Good Luck
I kinda of disagree with the acetone method. I had bad experience with copper coins, so use it with caution with a few coins at once - not dumping the whole lot at once.
STOP. PLEASE STOP. First get to know what coins you have before you do anything. For all you know you have a 1909S VDB in there. Maybe an 1877 Indian Head Cent. Maybe a 1916D Merc Dime. Don't do anything to those coins until you know what they are. If you have a 1955DD Lincoln and you start cleaning it further, you may really mess it up. I strongly suggest you ignore any further cleaning suggestions until you know what you have. Leave all as is until you get a book such as the Red Book or something equal. There are many web sites where they have listings of coins minted and approximate values. Do not tamper with those coins until you know what you have. Absolutely any additional cleaning would lower the value of a valuable coin.
I agree with this! Once you know what you have there are professionals who can restore your coins if their value warrants it.
I remember one time i got a roll of 1/2s at the bank a few years ago. When I opened them up, they were all covered in clay and were all green and stuff. I couldn't even clean them off to see what date they were, so I just gave them back to the bank. That was back when I'd find silver halfs a little more frequently. Actually, I just found a merc (1928) in my change from Micky D's a few days ago. Who woulda thought?
