Anyone Recognise This?

Slur: if you're going to clean with acetone here's the deal...

Wear goggles and gloves while working with the stuf.. standard safety and precautionary measure.. please work next to an adult...

Make sure you're not close to any source of fire or flame... the fumes themselves are very flamable.. and it will burn but the flame can be invisiable to the eye.

place acetone into a beaker... using plastic tongs place the coins into a beaker... let them sit for a minute or two...

in a second beaker have a funnel at the top... pour the contents of the acetone and coins into the funnel... the funnel will catch the coin without damaging the surface.

Place coin onto a soft cloth and let it air dry...

place the funnel over top of the empty beaker and repeat until you've finished cleaning each coin.

Now in terms of DBM's offer.. I say the guy made a very nice gesture... If I were you I would accept the coins but pay it forward... do something nice for someone else... cut someone's lawn... or prune their garden... wash their car.. what ever .. that way you can say you've earned it and you're passing the good Karma along...

I like your set.. I hope to see many more posts of the coins you have aquired... please keep sharing and keep us updated... and keep on collecting!

Acetone is heavier than air and will flow to ground. A number of years ago I was working in my attached, closed garage, which used to be an open carport when the house was first built. I was cleaning some old car parts with acetone or a similar solvent. No goggles or mask - I have gotten smarter since. Anyways, there was an interior stairwell going down one floor to the door to the basement. I took a break to go downstairs. I only got about half way down when the fumes overcame me. No-one was there to help and I barely got back up the stairwell before passing out. The fumes had no scent and had flowed down to fill up the stairwell. This is why they don't allow pits in garages anymore.

OldCoinGuy: Wow, I didn't know that, thanks for the warning! I've been cleaning coins under the stairwell this whole time, good thing I didn't do it on the upper floors.

AgCoinAu: I'm pretty sure it's grime, because it's only on the "tight spots" of the coin where the grime won't get rubbed off by other coins if it was in a purse.
I've (in person) seen 1980s pennies that someone "cleaned" with weak acid (they say), I think they said they used concentrated lemon juice or some other concentrated citrus juice, and left them to soak for I don't know how long. I've also seen photos of coins soaked in stronger acid. Results look awful and no way I'm going to do that to a coin.

I read in an older post that you can use xylene too to clean coins, but that's sort of last resort if acetone doesn't work. Does it ruin the coin?