Cleaning coins in olive oil

Hi guys,

I've been using this 100% olive oil to soak my ancient coins in, they've been soaking maybe a month or so and they seem to be coming out with a dark/burnt look. (one of them that has a bit of bare metal showing seems to have more promising detail on the metal than the crusty burnt patina on top lol) I had a look at the ingredients on the oil at it says "Refined olive oil, Extra virgin olive oil". Am I using the wrong kind of olive oil? Why do you think these coins are coming out like this?

P.S. these are some pretty nasty coins, I haven't started cleaning my better coins until i can find a method of cleaning that works well for me.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

a month ? I heard if you do it for 6 days it will be ok. ?

 

Yes, olive oil can turn the coins dark. Also, you don't want to strip the patina from coins unless it is absolutely necessary.

 

I was never any good at cleaning coins, but I've heard that using the olive oil method is not the best method. Distilled water and patience. There have been plenty of discussions on this board about cleaning. Take a look at some of those. And, btw, welcome.

 

Welcome. This is a fun place.
Olive oil has been used for many years with good and bad results. I have seen few good results from long term baths. I quit using it years ago.

 

i'll use olive oil for super crusty hard deposits and stuff like that, just pop 'em in and let them set for a couple months or more...i've had mixed results. anything remotly loose on the coin i prefer distilled water. i have had coins change color a bit...not always. just keep experiementing until you come up with something that works for you.

 

Thanks guys, unfortunately I cant use distilled water because over here in New Zealand there is nowhere to buy it. All I have is demineralised water which I think is essentially the same thing but i'm not too sure. I've tried soaking the coins in the demineralised water but i'm still a bit wary of it.

 

You are right. Demineralized water is not the same as distilled water. Distilled water is essentially condensed water vapor. It is purified through a boiling process. Demineralized water goes through a filter known as a resin bed. I'm not sure of how each might affect a coin.

 

I've used it and it seems to do the job, but since I haven't used distilled water before I can't really judge it. I've found somewhere I can get distilled water (although its damn expensive, $25 for 5L) so I might buy that and try it out so I can get a comparison.

 

Expensive water!

 

olive oil great for zinc coins, for bronze it takes long time to soak (about 3-6weeks) deepens how bad they are , and again its not always a good idea to soak coins in oils

 

I found some way way way cheaper distilled water, however I don't know if its the right stuff, can anyone help me out? It's called Pure Dew Water 10L (http://search.thewarehouse.co.nz/red-shed/Pure Dew) if it "tastes great" it makes me think that there's something else too it. Anyone know if this stuff will work?

 

I have a feeling that we have a terminology problem here. In the US 'distilled' water of the lowest grade but that works for coins is 89 cents a gallon at groceries including Wal-Mart. It was once intended for use in steam irons but now you see irons labeled that it is not required. On the shelf next to it is drinking water marked differently. On the label, the distilled is said to be 'processed by steam distillation'. I am sure that more expensive distilled waters might have less residual mineral mater but we do not need reagent grade chemicals here for quantitative experiments. The idea is that water without minerals will remove minerals from the surfaces of the coins faster than tap water which is already full of minerals. I believe that more frequent changes of lower grade water would offset any advantage of more expensive 'double distilled' water which would start with regular distilled water and distill it again.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Distilled-Water-1-Gal/10315382#ProductDetail
I was brought up to believe that distilled water was not as healthy to drink as hard well water but that was a long time ago and I have no idea about current thinking on the matter.

 

olive oil is mildly acidic, i am not sure how mild and cannot be measured in PH as far as I am aware, because PH refers to the hydrogen ion concentration in an aqueous solution. Olive oil and other oils are not water soluble so their acidity cannot be measured in terms of pH. The more 'virgin' an oil, the less acidic......I think.

 

I'm no chemist, but I would think it would be the other way around.

 

According to my doctor, 'virgin' olive oil is pressed but never heated. Heating the mash and pressing again gives the lower grades which are more acidic but heating (as in cooking) erases the difference and changes the food value so it is a waste to cook with the good stuff. I'd say it is a waste to soak coins in it either but I don't like oil soaked coins anyway.

I do not know much about cleaning coins but I do know that I like the look of the average coin on the market years ago better than today. We see a lot more harshly cleaned things now than we used to as more and more people are happy with rough coins. Perhaps in the old days they just threw out the junkers because there were enough nicer coins to supply the demand???

 

Thanks for your replies guys, I think I'm going to throw out the olive oil technique because I'm not too fond of its results. I'll just stick with demineralised water for now

 

I think the purer, the less acidic.......but we need an expert.

 

As I posted before on another thread I showed my Before & After pics of a 1806 pure copper Penny coin that had severe verdigris.
The one pictured took about 6 days. I have coins soaking all the time, some have been submerged for over 12 months.
I use Extra Virgin olive oil and have done for years and get good results 90% of the time.
The remaining 10% are beyond help.

 

Here`s some long term patients that are residing in the kitchen right now.