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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Oldhoopster, post: 5192987, member: 84179&quot;]Olive oil was recommended when I played with uncleaned ancients 15-20 years ago.&nbsp; Had mixed results.&nbsp; Olive Oil is supposed to be slightly acidic (if I remember correctly), but I wouldn’t expect it to be a problem with your detector finds.&nbsp; The prevailing wisdom at the time was to use a toothbrush with cut down bristles to brush the coin between soaks.&nbsp; While this may seem harsh, it seemed to help.&nbsp; I tried to brush the cruddy areas and stay away from the coin surfaces.&nbsp; Once again, it didn’t appear to cause any problems on the crusty ancients.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is what I would try</p><ul> <li>Soak in distilled water<br /> </li> <li>Brush<br /> </li> <li>Repeat until water is clear<br /> </li> <li>Acetone (If you don’t get anything coming off or softening after 30-60 min in a closed jar, it probably isn’t worth continuing) <br /> </li> <li>Water rinse<br /> </li> <li>Brush<br /> </li> <li>Olive oil soaks<br /> </li> </ul><p>You can also try things like a pin vise or dental tools for hard stuff.&nbsp; You need to use a microscope and it requires patience and a steady hand, but some of the ancient people did a really nice job (however, I didn’t have the patience and that was one of the reasons I quit messing with them).</p><p><br /></p><p>You could also play around with some sulfur compounds (like deller&#039;s darkener or powdered sulfur) to retone your HC.&nbsp; The coins are already shot, so a more aggressive cleaning to remove the crud and retoning might be a viable option to make the coins look nicer.&nbsp; They&#039;re not going to fool anyone thinking they&#039;re original surfaces but IMO, it might be worth trying on some of the copper cents[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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