Before you all faint, let me give the specifics. I like to search through circulated coins. I occasionally find proof coins in circulation, especially in the halves. About half the time, the proofs are still in excellent condition and I keep them as is. With the rest, I will give them a quick acetone bath to remove dirt and fingerprints. There is a small percentage that contain too much dirt for acetone to remove by itself. I've even tried thiourea acid on ones that are so badly damaged from circulation that you almost couldn't tell it was a proof just by looking at them. While the thiourea acid provided remarkable results on those coins, I'm still too hesitant to try it on ones that still have that proof luster (you know where you can tell across the room that it's a proof). (just to clarify, I always use distilled water rinse and air dry after acetone or thiourea acid) My question is, what would everyone else recommend for modern proof coins, with little value, to clean them after finding them in circulation? I'm talking the ones where acetone isn't enough and the proof luster has already been damaged. The one that prompted me to start this thread is a 1981S proof half with some bright green crap on it that acetone did not even dent. I then tried the thiourea acid and it did very little (but it cleaned up the corroded spots very nicely). Now, I don't want to leave the green crap on there, but I don't want to actually scrub the coin either. I've read about soaking in Olive Oil for several hours, but I don't know if that will remove the remaining proof luster from the coin. I'm not willing to sacrifice this proof to find out (at least not without getting a second opinion first). Are there other things around the home that might work also.
There's no telling what the material is - it could be something as simple as paint. And if it is, neither acetone nor thiourea would remove it. Personally, I'd give up trying to remove it - but if you insist, try some paint remover.
Well, an overnight soak in acetone did remove a fair amount of the green stuff, although I can still see where it was. I'm assuming that it damaged the metal at some point. There is still some green stuff on the edge, I think I'm going to just leave it there at this point. I scanned the coin and the scans do not do the coin any justice. It looks much better in natural light, but the scan definitely shows where all the damage was done to the coin. The only damage the scan doesn't show is all the scratches from circulation. I'll see if I can upload the pics.
I just noticed I wrote 81S in the initial post, it's an 85s. It's a shame to see people damage nice coins like this. Of course, if it wasn't for people that break these open and spend them, I wouldn't be able to find nice coins like 1960 Franklin Proof, 1964 Kennedy Proof, and 1966 + a 1967 Special Mint Kennedy (looks like a proof to me, but I guess they wouldn't call them proofs). Those 4 were in such nice condition, that I was afraid to even touch them for fear of adding any marks to the coins. And of course nothing beats getting them at face value.
I've heard olive oil works good. Tried it on a couple lincolns. Didn't fair that well. Maybe didn't soak them long enough. What exactly do you do after the soak? I've heard some people say a Q-tip works and others say a toothpick works on the details? Which is it, i've tried the q-tip mothod but did't work well. Then I've heard vasoline and a toothpick works. Any opinions?
Gatzdon,although that's a very impaired Proof,it is still nice to have it to fill in that space in your collection.As for getting silver Proof $1/2 coins in change at face value,that's a real bonus.Have you ever had Canadian or Panamanian silver coins turn up in your change? Aidan.
I found a silver guatamalean 2½centavo piece in a roll of dimes once. I also found a 1961 canadian quarter which I think is 80% Ag. I've also been lucky enough to find a 1976S Silver Proof, 2 Uncirculated Silver 1976S's. 1967 Special Mint Half, 1966 Special Mint Half, a 1960 Franklin Proof, and my best find of all time is now the 1912D Barber Half which I place at a tarnished XF grade (the entire LIBERTY is present, but you can see wear at the bottom of the B and E).
I would power buff it, I has some damaged worthless proofs and I enjoy them more now that they're shiney.
