My father has just moved over from the other side of the country and has bought his coins with him. Unfortunately he has no idea how to store valuables and kept them in a box under his bed. With several floods dissolving and rotting the boxes and cases the coins are now a moldy mess. I want to try and restore the coins in some way so they can be displayed in some form. What is the best way to clean and display them?
Howdy BioPirate - Welcome to the Forum !! I moved your post over here so that you would get more responses.
It might help if you posted photos of a couple of typical coins to see better what you are up against. It would also help to know whether the coins are copper or silver.
DO NOT use toothpaste. It'll put scratches in the coins.Maybe a distilled water soak for a couple months? I have heard acetone for removing organic matter from silver, but don't listen to me. I have never tried it.
The coins are a mix of all metals from copper, silver, ect. I haven't gone through all of them but for all I know there might even be gold ones in the mix. I only have a small collection of my own and I take care the ones I have but when I saw this and the condition they were kept in it almost bought me to tears. Any help and advice would be appreciated.
I found some American dollars dating back to 1874. Most of them are in sealed plastic cases and a few loose. A wash under water got rid of the filth on them
Do no more cleaning than you have already done. http://coins.about.com/b/2006/09/23/how-to-clean-coins-safely.htm
Only did a couple of the loose ones not the ones in the plastic cases. I also made sure it was a gentle wash
Good. Some of the ones in plastic look like they might have some nice toning on them. The way I like 'em.
