Need Professional Advice

Silver and Hydrogen Peroxide have a chemical reaction with each other.




Now they are referring to a more concentrated H2O2 than store bought stuff but they react nonetheless so no I wouldn't clean anything silver with H2O2.

Edit: Distilled water is used to make colloidal water. It involves getting distilled water boiling and adding silver (to oversimplify). I don't think room temperature distilled water wouldn't hurt.

Acetone is a common go to 'cleaner' for silver coins. It won't damage the surface but can remove residue or gunk typically.

Soaking in distilled water solves nothing. Sort of like washing your coin in air. Don't use Hydrogen Peroxide on coins though. Will not clean and can do some harm.

look, distilled water won't hurt anything, neither would pure acetone, Both are pH7 and neutral and neither acidic or alkali, all it does is break up solids and dirt on the surface of the coin. It will do nothing to toning, or the surface metal, and neither distilled water or the acetone solvent would leave a residue on the coin because neither have contaminants, dirty distilled water or dirty acetone is a no no, it's contaminated, so use sparingly and change often.
However though, it does nothing to toning. so if the coin is toned, this isn't the answer, it's just meant to take off stuck on gunk and dirt without rubbing or scraping.


the peroxide thing is a bit more complicated and a lot can go wrong, at roughly room temp, a 10% solution of peroxide to 90% water is pH 5.3. 100% H2O is pH 7.0, 100% Peroxide is pH 6.2 getting the solution right is a problem, and no matter what it's an acid and as such a corrosive, BUT this isn't the main concern really....

Hydrogen peroxide's chemical formula is H2O2. When it comes into contact with silver, the silver acts as a catalyst. The reaction frees the extra oxygen atom to produce water, and also generates a lot of heat in the process. However drugstore peroxide is about a 3% solution of peroxide, the rest is water. for a violent reaction the peroxide would need to be concentrated to a 90% solution or greater, then the reaction is so violent an hot it could be used for model rocket fuel. it rapidly gets hot, turns the extra oxygen atom into water, turns the water into steam and blows it out the nozzle with extreme force.
Just saying it can be a problem for the unknowing playing with the chemistry set and concentrating hydrogen peroxide to get it more pure than the 3%,and getting it up there to near pure thinking "Hey this will remove toning fast!" then dropping in the coin in the near 100% solution and find yourself blasted in the face with steam at about 200 feet per second. It can be a problem and get messy fast.
...And the temperature will tone the silver also in the reaction very well dark and nasty.


And a lot can go wrong, it would be much better to use a toning remover dip product and follow the directions to the "T" since it's formulated, consistent and tested and still you'd want to practice on some junk silver before messing with something you care about.

for perspective, sodas like pepsi/coke/root beer ect are around pH2.5-pH 5 depending on the product, lemon juice is pH 2.
Anything below pH 6.5 will start to dissolve dentin on your teeth and anything below pH 5.5 will start to dissolve tooth enamel.

So, technically you don't want anything much lower than pH7, or much higher than pH7, unless you've had lots of practice with it and know what you are doing because it can easily damage your coins and eat into the metal depending on the pH and the length of time. You really have to know what you are doing.
Alkali is just as bad as acid also. either direction, up or down from pH 7 is a corrosive, 7 in neutral.

Anyways I nerded out here. But well what else I got to do... lol