From what I've read so far, I might conclude acetone is the best product for removing PVC damage, and Verdi-Care is the best product for removing corrosion (I'm mostly interested in large cents) and grime. Am I understanding this properly?
Depending on how severe the PVC damage is, even Acetone may not be able to help. Acetone is really for coins w/ PVC damage that isn't too extensive. -Brian
Acetone will remove the PVC and prevent further damage. It will not in any way remove or affect the damage already done. Once the coin is damaged by the PVC, it is there forever.
Thanks for the suggestion about pictures. I just checked out some pictures on google. It looks to me like PVC damage is more of a bluish-green nature, though I couldn't find many pictures of copper coins to verify that. I am mainly concerned with large cents. I have a lot of them, and a lot of them have green. I think most of it is corrosion, and it seems corrosion is more of a true green.
PVC residue on a coin can vary greatly in color and texture depending on the age of the residue. It can be a completely clear residue, very thin and oily, it can have a pale green color, it can have a vivid green color, both of different viscosity. It can also vary from tan to even dark brown in color. It can be dry and flaky and even grey in color. In some cases it can even turn black. But in any and all of these stages acetone will remove it from the coin. But as stated, it will never repair any damage already done to the coin. It will only prevent more damage from being done. As for corrosion, there are many different kinds of corrosion and many different things that cause corrosion. Verdi-Care only treats one of them - verdigris. And just like acetone Verdi-Care will not repair any damage already done, it merely prevents more damage from being done. As I have said many times, when trying to clean a coin the hardest thing there is to learn is how to identify what you need to do, what you should use to do it, and indeed if you should even attempt to do anything at all. It is an extremely complicated subject.
