Removing Various 'Gunk' From Commemorative Coins

Be careful not to leave soap residue on the coin. Also, I would not advise tap water personally because of things that can be in it like fluorine, salts etc...

I have been drying my coins with canned air - the same cans you can buy at like Staples and Office Depot for blowing out dust under the keys of your keyboard. That may help avoid spots. +1 on the distilled water. I have a home water distiller so I get to see all the yucky distiller residue left behind from boiling tap water. It's not pretty. Even purified water isn't pure. Distilled water can had cheaply and easily from the supermarket.

-- Boris

Using either one will ruin the mirrors of a proof. Soap and water will not help that coin and chances are that you will make it worse in the process. Conserving proof coins is a tricky proposition and one that can easily go bad quickly. Your proof has toning haze that can be found on many improperly handled/stored proofs, proofs are especially susceptible to this hazing.


Easier said than done, you would just be better off not purchasing impaired coins in the future. You have to ask yourself this question- "If it was easy to remove smudges on a proof, then why would people sell them at a reduced price with the smudges?" They are your coins so proceed as you wish, I just do not want to see a new thread asking how to remove hairlines

Since your determined to clean off whatever is on your coin, let me throw in my 2 CENTS. NOTE however, that once cleaned, it is a cleaned coin. If it were a reasonably valuable coin prior to cleaning, it would loose much of it's value from the cleaning. That too depends on the cleaning process. If you ever watched the Antique Road Show on TV you would have heard them say things like "If you hadn't of cleaned this it would have been worth double or more".
First the main reason for the cleaning ruining the value. Most items that are old have attracted substances that are now adhearing to the items outer surface either by just coating or by chemically combining. When you remove the foreign substance, you usually remove some or a lot of the original surface and sometimes even more. This may well leave dents, scratches, holes, pot marks, etc on the item. Then too some of the originality of the surface atractiveness may also be now lost forever. A proof coin's surface, for instance, is like a mirror and would show the slightest attempts to clean with a brush, cotton ball, paper towel, etc.
If you insist on attempting to clean any coin, start with the simple things. Try soaking in distilled water for a period of time. Days or even a few weeks will not effect a coin.
If that fails, attempt to use Acetone. Use the search section of this forum for the possible billions of items on that topic. (Slight exageration you know),Only millions.
Now if this fails to remove whatever you want removed and you still want to continue, try the many other simple things people always do to both save money, time and running around buying stuff you'll never use again. Some try many things on coins they find around the house. Such as:
Olive Oil, Vinegar, Tomato Juice, lemon Juice, Lime Juice, Bakiing soda and water into a paste, Laquer thinner, paint thinner and almost anything else laying around. Some try putting the coin in boiling water, freeze it then dump in hot water, spit on the coin and rub with your fingers and almost anthing else.
Myself, I've even used battery acid on a Copper coin. Guess you could call it a Half Cent now.
Some time ago I purchased a 1995 Lincoln Cent Double Die for practically nothing. It had a finger print right on the front and a big one. With nothing to loose, I dipped it in jewelery cleaner from Walmart. Old stuff too. Finger print came right off and the cent sure is nice and shinning now.

Hello,

Well I did it! I tried cleaning my 1987 Constitution Bicentennial Dollar and.....nothing happened. So, I took it to my local dealer and asked him what he thought of the coin he said, "Looks fine to me." I said there was "gunk" all over it so he used a 10x magnifying glass and looked again and then said, "Looks fine to me." So he asked me what power of magnification I'm using and I told him a scanner which probably magnifies the coin about 150 times.

He then spent about 10 minutes lecturing me on the fact that if you look at a coin straight on with 150 power magnification of course you are going to see every little imperfection and hairline. His advice was to look at the coin from different angles and let the light hit it different ways. He told me if I spend my time worrying about what others think and the imperfections that can't be seen with 10x power then I'll never be able to enjoy my collection.

I stressed to him like I stress here that resale value is not my top reason for collecting. He said that is good in the case of that particular coin anyway, since I'd only get about $8 for it. I paid $12, which is a loss of $4. The current spot price for silver is roughly $12 so really it is not that big of a deal to me.

So, just to ease my mind I asked him if I brought him the same coin that had never been opened how much he would give me in comparison to my coin. He said $8. That tells me really not to worry about things I can't see with 10x magnification.

Here are the pictures (magnified about 150 times of course.)







So, any thoughts on what I learned?

Thanks,
Rich

I suspect it is the haze on the coin's surfaces you are talking about as smudges. Some may be due to detrimental and negligent handling, but most of it is a (toning/corrosion) take your choice ( process). On a business strike it might not even be visible, even though it would be there. It would eventually take on a yellow /gold coloration over time. There are ways to remove it, conservation companies can do it with minimum damage to the surface, but for this value coin it wouldn't be worth it. Some people have acquired the knowledge and ability to do it themselves, but they have had many "sacrificial" coin trials to know how and most importantly WHEN it can be done with minimal harm. They have usually suffered some financial loss of value.

At this point, you can (1) sell and replace, (2) let it go a few years if it doesn't continue to worsen, or (3) experiment with a very diluted dip with the possibility it will become a bullion coin due to damaged surfaces.

It is your coin! It certainly isn't like dipping a rare $$$$ coin. But if you use a dip, dilute it 1:10 to start. It takes longer but you have more working time before damage occurs. I am NOT suggesting you should do this, just that if your next step was going to be to try catsup, vinegar, Hydrochloric acid, brillo pad, biox,etc., a dilute dip is a better choice.

Jim

This is the coin I was talking about.....
Brewzz

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