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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Burgess, post: 4864022, member: 105098&quot;]&quot;distilled water -&gt; acetone-&gt; xylene&quot; is a progression or method. you may be satisfied with distilled water results, or it may not take off the gunk. If it does&#039;t take off the gunk, the next step would be treating it with acetone. Now Xylene would be a 3rd step, it&#039;s pH is 6.5, and it&#039;s a different chemical make up than Acetone, so it acts differently where Acetone may not do the job on lets say adhesive residue, Xylene may do it. Toluene would be another step, it has a pH of 3.15-4.75 and another solvent. people don&#039;t usually go to Toluene.&nbsp; Both Xylene and Toluene aren&#039;t water soluble. Acetone is water soluble.</p><p><br /></p><p>you may find distilled water does the trick, you may not be happy with the results and then take the next step to acetone. youy may not be happy with acetone results and take the next step to xylene, or toluene.&nbsp; it&#039;s really not a 3 step process. it&#039;s more of a progression. try this first, if not good, go to step two, ect.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some people start with acetone, and stay there and only use acetone for this purpose. it really depends on what the contaminant/surface debris s you are trying to remove, and what will work. and sometimes, nothing works.</p><p><br /></p><p>right around a pH of 4 you are heading towards ketchup or vinegar pH of 3 is&nbsp; Lemon Juice or Coca-Cola, this absolutely would discolor copper/bronze if exposed too long, so like Toluene is kind of a last resort, and a quick put it on, take it off and takes some skill.</p><p><br /></p><p>my overall opinion is, you should practice on similar coins, that aren&#039;t pieces of your collection or low value and easily replaceable and learn what it will or won&#039;t do when it comes to cleaning up coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another misconception. &quot;cleaned&quot; coins are devalued. &quot;improperly cleaned&quot; coins where the surface was damaged, cleaned with abrasives, harsh acids, machines, this this is what it&#039;s meant as &quot;cleaned coins are devalued&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>this is why I suggest sticking with as neutral pH of 7 as possible, dipping in fresh clean,&nbsp; and air dry or blot dry in the case of xylene or toluene which take forever to evaporate.</p><p><br /></p><p>in all honesty, it&#039;s so much easier to say &quot;leave it completely alone&quot; then to describe all of this. or the hundred ways you can make a mistake in properly cleaning a coin and it becoming &quot;improperly cleaned&quot; or misjudging a reaction (curveball) it takes practice, experience and knowledge to get it right and still, I think accidents happen occasionally and it goes wrong and should have just left it alone.</p><p><br /></p><p>if fingerprints are old on the coin, it&#039;s likely etched into the surface, and likely trying to rinse with anything listed will have no effect on removing them. there&#039;s things you can and can&#039;t do.</p><p><br /></p><p>it is confusing. even for me who sticks with distilled water as, as far as I&#039;m willing to go. cleaning properly, just removes dirt/contaminants form the coin surface, it doesn&#039;t affect the patina/toning/luster or remove metal frm the coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;dipping&quot; in metal cleaner that does remove tarnish or toning is something else entirely, some are acidic, some are oxidizers that strip off contaminants, and toning.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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