MS 70 and copper experiment

I see a couple of different posts where people have sort of used MS70 as a "dip" instead of how it is "supposed" to be used.

No where on the bottle does it say "submerge coin in MS 70, and leave over night", or even "submerge" for that matter.

What makes people think they are going to achieve any kind of desired results if they do not follow instructions? Don't get me wrong.... I doubt I would use this on copper to begin with, but my opinion is if you invent a method you better be willing to see adverse effects in the "testing" phase.

 

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This was a common date and heavily encrusted copper IHC I used.
The original idea was to see if the MS 70 could restore the coin by removing the encrustation. When I put the coin in the solution it began bubbling around the edges immediately. That is when I decided to find out what this chemical could do to a coin if left in the solution too long. When I removed the coin the next day about all that remained of the experiment was the crust.
The exercise turned into an experiment about why one should be very cautious about using chemicals of unknown ingredients to clean or restore coins. In this case it was the copper that suffered the most, the encrustation was much stronger.

Now I have a bottle of the offending 'coin cleaner' that I will probably need to turn over to hazardous waste disposal to be rid of.

jeankay

 

Well, I have the bottle sitting right here...dont need it because I have used it before and know you are supposed to apply it directly to the coin or rub it on with a Q-tip...as well as massage the surface...

but dont you know cotton will scratch metal!!! oh no!!

of course it says right on the front of the bottle that it is safe to use on gold, silver, nickel, copper, bronze and brass and contains no acid...to be used on mint, proof or AU coins, it will remove tarnish. I believe this to be true. You can also use acetone and other chemicals...simply because it is a caustic chemical of some kind does not mean it should not be used on coins, simply because you use it completely wrong and it hurts a coin doesnt means people shouldnt use it correctly and with care..its for metal...not skin or drinking...

There are a lot of caustic things that are good to have around when used properly...a battery for one.

 

The topic of cleaning coins never ceases to amaze me, and it has been going on for decades – both the topic and cleaning. When NGC started “curating “coins the uproar could be heard around the world. Like no one has ever cleaned a coin before. A few decades ago I read in one of the hobby press rags an article where the author postulated that 70-80% of all silver coins had been cleaned at one time or another, and nearly as many copper coins too. It was standard practice in the late 60s, and I’ve even watched dealers bring out the dip in front of a buyer to make a coin look purdier so that buyer would make the purchase, and it normally worked,… so much for collector indignation over cleaning coins.

IMHO, if you want a nicer looking coin, buy one and give you ugly one to a young collector or scout group. They don’t mind if its got a little dirt or grim on it. They’re simply happy to have it. But, that’s just my two cents worth, which with inflation and the falling dollar, ain’t much. :smile

 

hmmm.... I'm wondering if your coin was radio active or something.... Just kidding. That is very strange though....

Are you saying MS 70 dissolved your penny?

I might have to try this out....

 

The entire coin was super heavily encrusted with black corrosion, and I could barely see what denomination and year it was. When I retrieved the coin the solution had turned dark green so I had to fish for the coin with tweezers to remove it from the solution. As far as I could tell there wasn't a bit of copper left. The only other possibility is the corrosive deposit could have already eaten the copper away. Yet, I had a nice shell of black gunk which was still quite stiff left over.

I can guarantee that I won't be doing that experiment again... and will definitely be extremely careful *if* I ever try to clean a coin with that product. Usually I put these coins in the 'get-rid-of-it' bag and don't even consider cleaning them.

jeankay

 

I've had some similar experiences with MS-70 and I'd bet money that your coin was completely corroded to nothing under the incrustation.

As I said earlier, I use MS-70 on metal detector finds. On most copper coins it looks as if it's doing nothing, removing just a bit of surface dirt maybe, but on the heavily encrusted or corroded coins it literally eats away the corrosion. The results usually aren't pretty, but the coin was severely damaged anyway and a pock-marked "clean" coin is better then a corroding and rotting mess of metal any day.