Quote: Is mercuric acid commonly used for this purpose? I use mercuric to remove rust from metal items without damage to any paint near the corroded area. It does leave a tell tale pitting, but in many cases this is better than flaking rust that continues to do damage.
Anyone have any insight on the type of acid that would do this to a copper or bronze coin?
I think you may mean you use muriatic - not mercuric - acid. This is just another name for Hydrochloric acid (or HCl). An acid to eat most metals (not gold) is nitric acid (HNO3). It would easily do this to a copper cent.
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