CLEANING COINS! PLEASE HELP!

CLEANING COINS! PLEASE HELP!
I have to give a lecture/seminar at the FMDAC [Federation of Metal Detectors & Archaeological Clubs Inc.] annual convention .

I have been asked to speak about cleaning of coins.

Yes, gasp! Cleaning.

However, realize that these are dug coins.

So, all ideas/suggestions solutions, welcome!

Please help me, with your successful & unsuccessful trials & attempts.

Go for it.

Thanks a bunch.

Any internet links please let me know, post them below.

Frank


PS: The convention is next week.

link on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FMDAC/

ask to be a member & I will approve you all.

Thanks

 

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Oh, how the mighty have fallen..........

 

Sorry! Suicide, euthanasia and cleaning coins are morally wrong and against my religion.

There are no successful trials and attempts. Occasionally, and I mean very occasionally, we may encounter a predicament, where choosing the lesser of two evils is required (environmental crud, verdigris, cleaned coin in collection, etc.).

 

What!?

I'm gonna get 'cha!

 

and what did you do for the environmental crud, verdigris?

 

Left it as is, bought a new identical replacement coin for my collection (without issues). Cleaned coins that end up in my hands, are quickly swapped. With full disclosure, of course, and often for close to melt price. Sad but effective. I also can't justify buying $5 - $10 worth of cleaning supplies and solutions, when I could get a $5 - $10 coin instead. My hobby is coin collecting, not janitorial 101.

Here is a rusty one I came across in the nineties, it stayed as is to this day...



I also have all the steel cents (P, D, S) in UNC. Liked the coin, bought pristine examples, instead of forking out money for cleaning supplies. I prefer to talk coins with men, cleaning ladies have their own circles.

 

The main thing to remember about cleaning coins is progression. Do not nuke a coin with acids, etc if you haven't tried gentler methods. I always start with water, pure water. A good source is from dehumidifiers or AC units. Also known as demineralized water. This will suck dirt out of a coin because the water wants to bond with minerals. If someone wants to use soap make sure you either get one without chlorides or rinse well after the scrub.

This cleans up most dug coins, and is the start of cleaning ancients. After this, various grades of chemicals or mechanical cleaning can be used, such as acetone to start, then olive oil and verdicare, then up to more dangerous chemicals. Point being, ALWAYS start with just water and see how it goes. You can never "unclean" a coin once you have ruined it. Like most things, it takes trial and error.

 

I don't have anything to add as far as cleaning other than doing as little as possible untill you ID it and then go from there. If it's a rarity or something of value, let the experts conserve it.

 

I have a nicely carved Hobo Nickel that has at least forty years of crud in the carvings.
I'm going to clean it as gently as possible using methods described by medoraman
after I do some more research. What's the point of keeping the crud on it if I'll enjoy more after it's cleaned.

 

Lets see a photo of the hobo as it looks now...

 

I'm with medoraman. Water, acetone, olive oil, in that order and as absolutely necessary. If you're talking dug coins, a good soak in water is a good start.
Also, extreme caution must be exercised when removing the coins from the ground, but they probably already know that. A little grit rubbed across the surface of a coin can do a lot of damage.

 

It's been a while for me but long baths in water and no rubbing was always the first step. Acetone was next. When the crust was really thick and would not wash off, I did the transformer thing.

 

What is the transformer thing?

 

Thanks...I was afraid to ask... LOL

 

I have a friend that dug out four beautiful coins from the ground. The initial layers of dirt were rinsed off. The coins looked like treasures from beneath the earth, stuck in time, full of character and some grime. He was nice enough to polish them to a dull gray scratched mirror finish. That was clean to him. He sent me photos of the beautiful before and shocked me with photos of the horrible after. The coins were legible after the initial dirt wash off. I could have cried.

 

I believe he is talking about electrolysis. Its electrical current used to clean ancients sometimes. Personally I have never done it.

 

Correct. It's like the last option but it helps with coins you can't see because of heavy crust. They turn out really dark and ugly but it's better than looking like a blob. it's fun to watch the process. Not something to use on anything of value.

 

No, not really something that matters much when you're playing in mud. Metal detector tells you it's metal. You must wash off dirt to find out what you have. It could be a washer, a button, a medal, a coin, part of a spoon, etc. You don't know what you have until it is legible. Only after identifying an object as a coin, can you start preaching or worrying about coin cleaning.

Whatever you find, scrubbing it down to a natural metal color is wrong, scratches are bad, some natural grime is good.

 

US collectors might say corroded. I will tell you the prettiest large cents in the world are the green patina ones from cents found in the ground. US collectors can be so closed minded. I have thought more than once that I should start a collection of US coins that are ONLY coins dug up from the ground.