Hi there guys, I was just wondering. I use to soak my coins in distilled water, however this was a long time ago and I've moved to NZ where I can only find demineralised water. In a nutshell demineralised water is essentially the same thing as distilled except the purification process is different. Distilled is boiled, demineralised is filtered through a resin bed. Now my question is: How will this effect the cleaning of my mostly ancient coins? I'm not too sure if the results are going to be the same, or if this demineralised water may cause harm to the coin and its patina. Thanks,
The results should be similar. The pH might be a little different, but it depends on the type of resin column (s) used. I have never soaked coins in water for more than a few minutes, but then I don't collect ancients, and people do all sorts of things with them that makes me personally shutter Now some of those folks will come by and give you comments. Welcome to the forum, here is a comparison page http://www.lenntech.com/applications/process/demineralised/deionised-demineralised-water.htm
Thanks I've soaked one coin in it and after an hour or so i could see its definitely working. I'll let it soak for a whole day and then see what the result is. Anymore info on how it affects ancients would be great if there's an expert that can help.
Water, of any type should do no harm, in the short term. Its what you do after the soak that does the damage, ie. stiffness of toothbrush or pick and how heavy handed you are. the main problem I see, is if you fail to properly dry out a porous coin after the soak, which in a warm atmosphere can speed up corrosion and the chances of BD.
Be careful here, demineralised water is the same as deionized water and is actually very corrosive to metals. I have done work on systems that circulated DI water for cooling xray units, you will never find any metal plumbing fittings or pipes in these systems due to the corrosion that would just eat them up. I am sure a quick dip or short soak will not do much, but no long term soaking.
Guys, water demineralised, ionised, distilled...will not harm a coin in a short soak, or even a longer one in my opinion. We are not talking about soaking a coin in EF condition, but a coin where crud needs removing which is probably unrecognisable anyway. If its for a modern coin with lustre/nice toning, what benefit from soaking anyway?
Hopefully you live in a humid, warmish environment. I say that because the cheapest source of distilled water is from your air conditioner or dehumidifier. Just clean the bucket out and collet this water for coin soaks. Demineralized water can work, but I am too cheap to buy water to clean coins.
Thanks for your reply guys. I've had a couple of my bad(ish) ones to test soaking for around 3 days now (replaced the water daily) and from what I can see it is working quite well. After a few hours I can see the crud infested parts of the coins are definitely reacting to the demineralised water as It seems to turn into a white'ish color . I am seeing more detail each time when I change the water and lightly brush the coin too. Here is a picture so you can actually see what the reaction looks like: My phone camera isn't great, but you can see the reaction happening there. As you can see there is a reaction going on, I'm just not too sure at this point if it's going to damage the coins at some point. For now I'm just leaving my better coins to soak in olive oil as I know that works (even though it takes its time).
i think demineralized water has the cloride removed...correct? so it should be ok in terms of not promoting bronze disease. i think.
If you see a reaction occurring, the water being used is probably acidic ( not pH 7 for sure). Maybe not much , but de-ionized water can shift the ph acidic quickly, just by the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air, unless the water is in glass or impermeable plastic ( lab type) containers, not the thin plastic gallon water containers. Could someone from the ancient coin cleaner group explain why long soaks in water or other solutions is needed? I know some use wire brushes and dental picks also, so why not a short rinse and then physically remove the material? Not being snarky, just don't understand the long term use of any chemical.
Longer soaks with H2o allows the water to permeate into the grime, which loosens it, meaning when you do have to use physical methods to remove the softened deposits you are less likely to remove a fine layer of patina with it. wire brushes?! no no no ........................ never!
Yeah I haven't had to use any dental picks yet, at the moment I just soak and then lightly brush with a tooth brush. Never take a wire brush to an ancient coin!
