When you are trying to properly clean a coin following the graduated steps of distilled water, acetone, and xylene - won't hurt anything. But it's often not necessary once you learn a bit. While one is still learning well yeah then I can see it. But once ya do, you'll come to recognize which one you need to use to begin with. But mixing and matching different commercial products - that's seldom a good idea. With junk coins no you're not going to hurt anything really, and experimenting is how we learn. But please don't try it on coins that matter. Usually, using a commercial dip is the last resort, but once one learns it can often become the first resort. And that is because you have already learned that the other stuff just isn't going to work. Now that said, commercial coin dip also has it's limitations. It's great at getting rid of toning, but it does a really lousy job of getting ordinary dirt and grime of off coins. This is because you almost never want to dip a coin for more than 1 second, and there's not a whole lot it can do in one second - except get rid of toning. Ordinary dirt and grime, that has to be removed using other methods, and just about nothing works better than ordinary distilled water. Usually long soaks in it when the dirt is deep in the crevices, followed by rinsing under tap water under pressure, followed by rinsing in distilled water again to make sure you don't have any issue crop up when you let the coin dry. Acetone, xylene, and coin dip - all of them do a lousy job on ordinary dirt and grime - they just don't penetrate it. Water does !
Yes. Either way, depending on the coin. Word of warning: On AU coins, MS70 often makes them look worse because the slight wear area will be a lighter color than the rest and it draws the eye to it. Regardless, use at your own risk. It also often gives copper uncirculated, or AU coins a "Blueish/purpleish" tone that to some people, is a tip off that it was used.
Thanks guys. I have a ton of coins sitting in distilled...some have been there for weeks...Whenever Im ready for the next experiment I grab some and air dry (on edge), then soak in acetone overnight, air dry, then in xylene overnight (my latest/newest step now that I have some in the house and since the DW and acetone weren't getting off the mysterious "dirt" on all coins dipped), air dry. These coins were all selected as dipping candidates. They are junk (value) and AU or better and are toned. The xylene may be the missing link--I dont think so though, so I jumped the gun and bought Coin Care (I hope to eventually experiment with everything out there so no big deal) thinking it did what I believe Blue Ribbon does/did--clean and coat. I was thinking I could clean with Coin Care (Blue Ribbon) to handle this "dirt" and then DW, Acetone, Xylene as usual and that that would remove whatever "coating" Coin Care (Blue Ribbon) left behind. Then dip and hopefully a spotless coin out of the dip bowl. I still think this is what is going to have to happen just need the right product. Just really need to have coin be 100% free of foreign debris (other than toning; is that foreign?) before starting. I can see why you'd think dip residue--since that ruined my first handful of dipping experiments. EZ-est is a tough thing to remove. Was driving me insane actually lol. My post dip of a coin takes about 10 minutes--I am probably actually overkilling the post dip stage. I'll be back with pics and details. I never meant this to be everything it became. I already had a "Question for the Dippers" thread...This was just, in my mind, a thread to learn about the new product I purchased--Coin Care Might be fun to read my first post on this thread to see how far its gone off the rails lol. And I will admit--I should have clarified what I meant by dip (its got thiourea in it!). Thanks all for your help! Really having fun learning and I am looking at coins (especially on eBay) in a whole new light! Aint falling for that garbage no more
I think you might need to realize something mrjason - there is nothing that is going to get everything off of coins without harming the coins. No matter how long you soak them or what you soak them in - it just aint gonna work. Ordinary dirt and grime is probably the worst, or the toughest if you prefer, to get off coins because it gets embedded down in all the tiny little places, and nothing short of mechanical action will get it out of there. Sure, some coins can be greatly improved, vastly improved even, by proper cleaning techniques. But others, well, there just aint much you can do for some of them. That's why it's often best to just leave them alone. And it's learning how to recognize which ones are which that is the truly hard part.
I don't think it is a secret that all the chemicals in this thread (I skimmed it) are used for coin conservation including Ultrasonic cleaners. One product "trike" is very useful if you can get your hands on it. I've been told that some folks doing conservation have a stash of old Blue Ribbon, Trike, and old batch MS-70 as the compositions have possibly changed although the suppliers deny it.
Wellllllll - it kinda depends. I suppose ultrasonic is sort of like coin dip in a way. Millions of coins have benefited from being dipped properly. But at the same time millions more have been destroyed by coin dip and people who don't know how to use it correctly
GDJMSP, posted: "Wellllllll - it kinda depends. I suppose ultrasonic is sort of like coin dip in a way. Millions of coins have benefited from being dipped properly. But at the same time millions more have been destroyed by coin dip and people who don't know how to use it correctly " No riddles in this post.
