Question about dirty coin?

Found this 41 nickel last night and it's in pretty good condition but dirty as all get out. I know cleaning coins is bad but this may just be dirt or something so I wanted to ask before I do anything.

Oh and of course there's those dang roller marks so none of this may matter anyway.

 

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I would put a small piece of a smooth cotton rag folded a couple of times and put the rag in a short bowl or mason jar. put the penny on the cloth and pour acetone in the jar. cover and seal it if you can. Let it sit overnight. Fish it out with a plastic fork onto a dry rag and let the acetone evaporate. If it is still dirty, or has green rot you can repeat the above process with a clean jar/bowl/cloth and use mineral oil. Check it after a day or two. Fish it out, gently put it on some paper towels and blot the oil off gently on both sides. It will take a few minutes of constantly moving a dry part of the towel over the coin and gently blotting off the oil. Don't rub it. If it is a little cleaner but not clean enough, use a fresh batch of oil and repeat. If the coin is really dirty you might have to leave it in for weeks, or months. If the oil is dirty or has little bits of anything in it, rinse the coin with clean oil before blotting it.

 

Soak it in water for a day. Pat dry. Don't rub the coin with anything. Next soak it in acetone for several hours. Don't use a plastic fork. The acetone will melt it.
You are correct about the damage to the reverse. It's a good coin to play with. You can't hurt it's value.

 

I wouldn't clean it, that's bad. Never clean coins. I'm just telling you the rule. I'd just conserve it, that way you didn't clean it.

 

And after all the cleaning, it will cost you more in acetone and mineral oil than it would have cost you to buy a better one on ebay.

 

leave it as it is and stick it in a coin tube with others of its kind.....

 

clean with H2O, then acetone, then put it in a CLEAR mason jar under your grandmother's front porch for 2 days. When you come back to it, it will still be a circulated '41 Jefferson.

 

No, cleaning coins improperly is bad.

Cleaning them properly (or "conserving" if you will) can be a good thing.

Moot point in this instance, however; there's nothing about this coin that's worth conserving.

 

the cost of the acetone will be more than the value of the coin

 

I know it doesn't look like much but it's the nicest 41 I've found while coin roll hunting. It's got great detail, just that dang coin roller destroyed it.

I appreciate that people think it's not worth cleaning but I didn't really ask for your opinions as to whether or not I should clean it. I just want to know the best way to do it. Besides, my girlfriend does her nails all the time so there's already acetone in my house.

 

Don't use regular fingernail acetone, it has additives in it. Go to a hardware store and get pure acetone.

 

Sounds like a lot of work for a coin that might not be worth it. But if you have the hankering to try your conservation skills, this might be a zero-risk oppirtunity. Knowing me, I would just sigh and toss it aside.

 

Why does everything that is attempted have to have a monetary value attached to it? Just enjoy the challenge of collecting, in your own way...

 

Most coins look worse cleaned than they did dirty. The crud doesn't form an even layer on the coin; some areas are dirtier than others and the cleaner areas form a stronger layer of patina than the dirty ones which are better-insulated from atmospheric chemicals.

Then, when you clean the dirt off, the coin has areas which appear plainly "cleaner" to the eye. I suspect you would like a successful conservation less than you like the coin right now.

Here's how I attack a conservation like this, when I don't necessarily know what I'm removing:

The process starts with a shot glass large enough to contain the coin plus an extra half- or inch of liquid, but not large enough for the coin to lay flat. That way the liquid can reach both faces equally.

First liquid is distilled water. I'll run the coin through two or three cycles of freezing, thawing, heating (below boiling but cook the coin for a few minutes) and then refreezing. I change the water before the heating step. That'll usually take gum off a coin without chemicals, much less encrusted dirt. I am absolutely against using any sort of cloth/Q-tip on any coin, ever, and this is what I've come up with for the ones you just wish you could use soap and water on. It's is far better for plain dirt than acetone, which is an organic solvent....

....good at removing what the water cycles didn't. This time, you're filling the shot glass with acetone, covering it with a small piece of glass to achieve an airtight seal, and (in my case since I don't have a garage) letting it sit overnight in front of a slightly-cracked bathroom window. This provides just a little air movement, which is all you need to safely employ quantities of acetone this small, with this procedure. Volatile as acetone is, any which manages to evaporate instantly leaves on molecular air movement (figuratively) and does not concentrate unless in perfectly still air. All of the above applies to the use of xylene, another solvent of concern as it's non-polar compared to acetone (a differentiation whose importance I'll leave the reader to learn ).

For a coin not known to be suffering from PVC plasticizer contamination, this one acetone soak followed by a "swish" in fresh acetone (I use wooden tongs, which stand up to acetone in the long run better than anything else soft enough to grab a coin with) is usually enough to remove whatever it's capable of in that specific instance.

Sometimes you just have to settle for whatever a prudent level of intrusiveness is able to give you.

You'll note that I didn't mention any sort of "picking" tool. I've found that freezing/heating cycles can remove even thick layers of crud, and use tools rarely. When necessary, only a rose thorn will do me (I don't own a porcupine), and I work under magnification with the coin underwater to minimize scratching from any random piece the thorn might dislodge.

Cleaning a coin is easy. Conserving a coin requires patience and respect. This is a subject of interest to me, and I'm slowly preparing a website which will address these issues plainly and with the broader numismatic picture in mind.

 

DO NOT use polish remover as it has other chemicals in it and will cause stains/discoloring. I get the "handling crud" off by using a handheld steamer/distilled water combo. Then I can handle them w/out getting paranoid about all the potentially deadly diseases that may be on them.....

 

Ooooh. Thanks - I forgot all about that.

Use nothing but pure acetone, available at Home Depot/Lowes/similar. Many "Nail Polish Removers" contain other added chemicals; use it only if it specifically mentions 100% acetone. The single exception is Denatonium Benzoate. You should see that listed even with acetone claimed pure. It's a required addition to make the liquid unpalatable, and if there's one thing denatonium benzoate is good at, it's being unpalatable.

Seriously; it's the bitterest compound known to science. It's so bitter that the proper mix for acetone amounts to drops per 55gal drum (0.1ml added is the threshold of bitterness for 55 gallons), which is why you don't need to care about it.

 

Looking through the dirt I see nothing by a good coin. The best that can be said is that all the lettering can be read. But little detail can be seen in both the Jefferson head and Monticello. I agree that it would be worthwhile to try to clean it just to see if you could.

 

[Don't use a plastic fork. The acetone will melt it.
You are correct about the damage to the reverse. It's a good coin to play with. You can't hurt it's value.[/QUOTE]

my plastic fork never melted... I've been using the same one for months... lol
I don't soak the fork, just the coin.

 

Cleaning actually takes away from the details of a coin. And its character. The contrast of darker areas, once removed, is worse than leaving it alone. Leave it alone. It will grow.

 

my plastic fork never melted... I've been using the same one for months... lol
I don't soak the fork, just the coin.[/QUOTE]
That's good. Most plastics can't handle acetone.