Coin Care Chemical

Just wondering how many people use this product and what your opinions are.

Thanks

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Use it, like it but WD-40 works just as well.
Before you guys jump - it's just to remove embedded dirt and always blotted never rubbed over the coins surface afterword. Only on less than MS coins. It will work as a good solvent also - it's a good product but no it's not an end all be all - I don't think there is anything magic in it.

 

Indeed there is not. I just finished my lab analysis of it.

Thanks Ben

 

And what were your results? iS IT GOOD STUFF? aS GOOD AS wd 40? (Darn Caps LOCk) Does it cover up blemishes or just shine it up? What's it do for the value of the coin?

I know that these are a lot of questions, but, when someone does lab work on coins &/or coin products I'd like to know what you found out. Also, Thad, I've used your Verdi-gone and think it works great. It's a high quality product when used correctly.

Bruce

 

Makes me want to go out and buy a can...LOL

 

Thanks for the shout-out Bruce. :kewl:

The product is severely hydro-treated napthenic oil with an odorant.

As most of you know, I'm against oiling coins. In numismatics oiling is a cosmetic treatment meant to deceive, nothing more. Oil will retard oxidation effects;however, the trace levels of "destructive" elements will eventually have their way with the coin surface. The good thing is that it's easy to remove with xylene.

 

WD-40 is good for achy joints my millionaire farmer friend says. He uses it all the time. His breath has the same odor Drives the motorcycle women crazy.

Jim

 

Doug post is true and not true, applicable and not applicable, real world and not.

I have used those products with much success and no complaints.
They are never used unless the coin in question can improved, not covered up when done correctly.
I never use them on coins grading VF and above except rarely and not on in any attempt to deceive any customer.
I readily tell buyers of these coins if treated that I do this to the coins they are buying in fact because I am proud of my wheats when treated this way if done correctly.
Look, I'm talking about wheats from the teens and twenties that one finds when going through collections that have ground in crud 98% of the time. Generally coins that sell for $2 to $5 in the first place.
The long term effects 20 years anyway are perfect. These products do improve the overall surface and do indeed improve cruddy coins.
Just as canned air (during posts in the past) was frowned upon by many members it does nothing to hurt coins surface - those comments are some kind of strange paranoid speaking that simply is not true, when done correctly. It does not make sence and when it does not make sence I don't buy it.
I've spoken before on here about this somehow strange attitude regaring common coin conserving practices. All dealers do it (that I know) and it's not right to somehow spout this stuff as it relates to "the real world" as the gospel. It's a clinical dissconnect that many people find as less than the whole truth when they go out into the real coin world. They are left thinking, "well they told me this was no good, they told me not to do it, I thought it harmed all coins, why are some dealer friends just now starting to let me in on this, I didn't know it was done by so many, and on and on and on".

I firmily believe if the gold conservation methods used on the SS Central America coins had been discussed here on CoinTalk they would have been blasted with pages of this same clinical type disconnect.

Conserving can improve coins when done with great care and by knowlegable people and is done everyday and has been done all along.
That's the real story here. To think otherwise is not telling (and not learning) the entire story.

Finally if such a decpetive practice why are members so willing to tell "all about it" in such great detail as this?

 

No problem Doug.

All mineral oils, regardless of the purification level, will contain trace elements such as sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, etc. All of these elements are very reactive with metals. Over time, they will react with the surface and ultimately cause toning, discoloration and even pitting. The reaction rate may be very slow, but it's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when". It is going to happen.

I highly recommend that collectors soak any suspect oiled coin in xylene to remove the oil. It should then be rinsed with acetone and stored in an air-tight environment.

It should be noted that acetone will not dissolve oil. Xylene is by far the best choice for the removal of oil. Toluene will also work well, but I find the odor offensive.

 

Thanks for your comments Doug. This is exactly what I was looking for. (uhhhh Thad - that is Ben you are quoting, not me.

Just like you, my favorite local dealer uses Coin Care on the cheap coppers. Oil is a great solvent for removing heavy, greasy build-up. I have no problems with using it as a solvent, but it should be rinsed off with xylene after the conservation task. Leaving Coin Care on the coin produces that oiled look that I just hate.

 

Interesting topic. And with such topics we have at least two schools of thought. I am sitting here with a fairly nice 1960D small date cent just found in my change [probably from the coin shop]. A Q-tip and a bottle of Coin Care are in front of me.
The coin has decent obverse with just dust and dirt. But the reverse is one crud spot away from being decent. Maybe I'll just leave it alone and stick it in a Whitman folder where you can't see the reverse.
So then what? The cruddy spot will fester and corrode away hidden from view burried in an old antique folder. Not only will the coin deteriorate but it will take the folder with it. So you say it's my coin do as I please with it? My cost is one cent.
What would you do?

 

Doug, you know I love you man, but you just do not understand hydrocarbons at all. I'm not going on a big diatribe again regarding this issue...but pure, straight hydrocarbons are 100% chemically, NON-REACTIVE with metals.

 

I use ms-70 coin cleaner it works really well.

 

Great thread :bow:

Different perspectives from expert collectors, each being able to firmly stand behind and defend their position...what a fantastic read for new collectors such as myself and seasoned collectors alike; thanks!

-LTB

 

Doug thanks for the questions and tone which is very repectful. I think we all need to use respect as the key to talks in CoinTalk.

The reason I said I only use them (Coin Care or others) on VF and lower is simply because in thoses grades they need it most often. Coin above VF don't often have that built in grime and crud one sees on the lower highly circulated cents.
98% percent of the time I'm reffering to copper only.
Each coin is carefully looked at to be sure it's lower value (generally) and can greatly be improved. Otherwise there is no value-ad. If I cannot think it will look better and be nicer there is no reason to do anything in the first place.
I got to tell you 80% do turn out very, very nice compared to what they were to begin with. I love copper and want it to look good. People come back over and over to get these coins because they cannot find them as nice anywhere else. Most of that is not do to any conserving methods though it's because I pick nice ones to begin with and cull more than anyone in their right mind would. This is what pleases customers most.

Second point is: I tell folks (if treated) because it's the truth - I never want anyone to buy a coin from me and not know that or how it got to look that good if treated. In regards to the next person down the line that may get this coin. I always feel if it's good enough that I would want it back if offered again that next person will be as pleased. That plus we talking about under $5 coins in lower grades.
I often tell customers if the coin they are thinking about buying from me looks good as it should or could. Sometimes telling them I'll try to find a better one or that they can get a better one some place else, that they should pass on this (my) coin cause I don't really like it either.

The gold conservation methods, Central Amer.
Yes you and I know that but most do not or did not understand the difference and the grading concerns of those conserved coins. It is still often hashed over but those methods while far more advanced than anything I know about are as sound as the day is long. Those guys really are top notch and performed that task with perfection.

I consider it conservation because my sole attempt is to improve a lower grade coin without much eye appeal to begin with, but with some left possibilities. Copper is tough. It's tough to find nice, keep nice and sell nice. Dealers sell Lincoln's and Indians with cankers, rust, spots, proofs that are ruined, key dates that I wouldn't even want to look at. Tattered 2x2's with crappy hand writting on them. The major selling point is to obtain coins and/or offer them for sale that don't have those problems and look better than the rest. On many, coins that can and have been improved.

Of the oils composition I know little but what I see in real life and while not coins, a gem or a used knife blade or tool can and is kept perfect for years with coatings like these.
I guess I would agree that these can be called "makeup" all though I prefere the term lubricant but many copper coins of low grades need some "makeup" to look as good as they can for the grade.
It is the complete blotting of the coin not once or twice but several times that removes most all of this oil, very little stays behind.

These methods or choices are made after learning a great deal and ruining many coins before hand. It does not work each and everytime but remember the context of what we are speaking of : mostly copper, only low grade, copper with crud that can/might be removed and only on copper that can and is improved over-all. Not all or any coins.

 

It's a cheap coin, do what you will with it. However, before using oil on it, I highly recommend the solvent polarity ladder:

1) water
2) acetone
3) xylene

Soak in each of these, in order, and see it the surface residue is removed. If not, they try the oil but be sure to rinse with xylene after the oil.

 

Regardless of who says what about what for coins and cleaning them with something, in the overall world of Numismatics, makes little difference. By that I mean just how many people collect coins and compared to that, how many will ever read this information? How many belong to this forum compared to how many out there collect and do clean coins with something?
And even for those on this or other forums that claim something like Ligher fluid works wonders on coins, how many are just blurting out something with little to any real knowledge of that?
Of course the information posted here so far on this subject is very informative to some, possibly a few hundred, maybe more, but compared to the possible millions that collect coins, it will be missed completely.
And too as I've mentioned before, when a subject, such as cleaning coins does become exceptionally informative, after a few weeks it is lost to the past.
Possibly a secondary forum called cleanig coins would help to those that miss this one.
After I posted this I went and looked at those standard other forums at the top of the page. One was for Frequently Asked Questions. Only 21 Threads there. Now think about this. Just how many threads have trhere been on cleaing coins, coin cleaning, Actone, etc. I'm sure way, way, way more than 21.