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Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 2975577, member: 27832"]Sorry, but that's not the way litmus paper works, and it misses the point about olive oil. Litmus paper is fine if you've got an aqueous solution -- an acid or base dissolved in water. If you've got an acid dissolved in oil, it won't turn litmus paper pink unless it's really concentrated. But it can still attack a metal surface. Olive oil almost always contains a little bit of acid. It's not strong acid, and it won't attack metal quickly. But it also won't evaporate away; it'll sit there indefinitely, slowly chewing away at the oxide layer on the coin's surface, and possibly the metal itself. As for the toothpick, as [USER=84179]@Oldhoopster[/USER] said, what if it's pushing grit around on the coin? It sounds like you're coming from an ancient-coin background. Once a coin has already been buried for many centuries, the rules for handling it are a little different.[/QUOTE]