E-Z-Est Coin Cleaner

e-Z-est is reputed to be Jeweluster under a different name. If it is, there is a very strong possibility the copper coins will have an "artificial" coloring thereafter. When I started collecting 30+ years ago, it was so very common to dip unc. but badly toned silver coins in Jeweluster. But even then it was said that with copper it left an "un-natural color", but without TPGrading, it was just a factor used to reduce the price a little on a coin too dark to sell before. Now I see a large number of these for sale on ebay Graded by the big 4 TPG companies with altered surfaces or artificial color or similar remarks, and in todays market, that can make the value extremely depressed.

With my lincoln keys and semikeys, I would not use any type of cleaning chemical.

But the e-Z-est is rather inexpensive, and you are probably like me with several hundreds to thousands of circ. common lincolns to experiment on so it may have changed in 30 years

Jim

I got that and the first 5 pennies I put in did have residue and Finger prints etc (It does exactly what the others did, It was advertized as the coin cleaner of coin pro's).. Keep your coins, unless absolutely needed, normal unclean.

e-Z-est is what people are actually talking about using when you hear the term "Dipping", it does exactly as Sap said, it eats away at the metal and if you don't know what you are doing you can ruin a expensive coin real fast. As far as using it on any copper coin I would say that is a big no no even if you have used e-z-est for years because it would have the pink salmon look that copper gets when it is stripped of all its original patina

"...sulfuric acid."

Quite possibly the worst reactant for silver and copper-based coins. I can't believe that's a collector product.

As Kurt said....stay far, far away from anything with sulfuric acid.....arrrrr....that will ruin a Lincoln Cent within 5 seconds. In fact, say away from ANY acid based cleaner for Lincoln's. As a chemist, I've experimented with a huge variety of mineral and organic acids in varied concentrations on Lincoln's, they ALL will cause permanent damage to the surface/patina...END OF STORY.

nohope has the absolute best method outlined, distilled water and sonication work very well and won't damage the surface. I also recommend xylene and ultrasound, works well on very dirty and greasy Lincolns.

If you look in the main coin forum section, you can see some of the research I'm doing on a fluid to remove verdigris. So far, it will also remove a limited amount of grime....although that's not it's intent. Perhaps I will eventually work on a copper safe conservation fluid for removing such grime.....but that's a different project.