1938 Penny

I left it to soak overnight in acetone, then by the next afternoon most of the gunk is gone. No more gunk in big open areas. I gently used a toothpick and cotton buds to get the rest off.

Here's the before pics. You've seen them before in this forum:





This is after an hour's work picking gunk from tight spots. I didn't manage to finish on that day, so I continued the next day and the coin got another night in acetone.





I'm certain the very green bits are PVC and the greyer ones gunk. No matter what I did I can't get the green from the pits in the obverse out. The green on the V is also extremely stubborn. I didn't clean much between the denticles because I'm afraid I might scratch the patina off.

So in conclusion: cleaning the gunk off a coin won't help it's grade. But it does have more eye appeal since it's so clean

I found it in someone's change jar. I got permission to search it. This was my 2nd KGVI. The first was from my old school's change jar.

This was a perfect coin to practice restoration skills on - you don't hone those skills on expensive coins.

SlurExe97, my advice is try soaking the coin in olive oil, instead of acetone, for a long overnight soak. Use a solvent only to remove the olive oil, then a rinse in water, pat dry. A long soak in acetone gives a dull washed look to circulated bronze. Since you in southern Ontario, you should have no trouble finding a hawthorne bush - use the thorns from that bush instead of toothpicks. They are pointier, harder and can be resharpened with fine sandpaper... and won't scratch the patina.

Keep practicing - someday you will find a coin that will really need it... like cleaning out the 9 of a 1859 DP #5... (as an example)...

I used this coin because I like it, a bit dirty, and it's not hard to find a replacement for if I mess this up.

Thanks SPP. I'll try getting some olive oil if it's not too expensive. I'm going to keep a mental picture of the hawthorn plant and look for thorns when I come across one. Maybe I can find a few in Queen's Park. I couldn't find the varirty you're talking about in the '65 Zoell, I need to upgrade that

Maybe Verdi-care will work on the stubborn green on the V, which I tried getting off with no results. I'm not going to use xylene again since I really destroyed the rainbow patina of a loonie, leaving it washed out. I'll consider getting it in the future.

I'm now working on some "hairy gunk" on a 1932. It was rather unrecognisable at first since it covers about half the coin. My photo in page 38 of Canadian roll hunting actually makes it look less bad.