Posted 08/16/2022 12:54 am
It also depends strongly on what substance, exactly, you are hoping to clean off of your coin.
- Dirt - as in literal, physical soil: use distilled water, perhaps with a mild soap - get advice on the soap to use, since some soaps can cause damage to certain coins. Avoid detergents since these are often sulfur-based, and sulfur discolours coins.
- Goo - glue, stickytape residue, paint, varnish or similar "organic" debris: acetone is the stuff you want. As pure as possible, since the stuff sold as "nail polish remover" often has smell-nice additives.
- Oxidation - toning or tarnish: there is considerable debate as to whether is is "good" or "safe" to remove an oxidation layer. Best advice here is to analyse each request on a coin-by-coin basis.
- Corrosion: sorry, there's nothing you can do that won't result in a "damaged coin". The coin is most likely "already damaged" and any cleaning strong enough to remove the corrosion will likely leave behind a crater.
Since new collectors often have difficulty telling the difference between dirt, goo, oxidation and corrosion, you can understand why the default advice for newbies is "don't clean coins". Because, as you can see, the answer to your question is "it's complicated", and complicated answers are not what we want to be giving to newbies.
- Dirt - as in literal, physical soil: use distilled water, perhaps with a mild soap - get advice on the soap to use, since some soaps can cause damage to certain coins. Avoid detergents since these are often sulfur-based, and sulfur discolours coins.
- Goo - glue, stickytape residue, paint, varnish or similar "organic" debris: acetone is the stuff you want. As pure as possible, since the stuff sold as "nail polish remover" often has smell-nice additives.
- Oxidation - toning or tarnish: there is considerable debate as to whether is is "good" or "safe" to remove an oxidation layer. Best advice here is to analyse each request on a coin-by-coin basis.
- Corrosion: sorry, there's nothing you can do that won't result in a "damaged coin". The coin is most likely "already damaged" and any cleaning strong enough to remove the corrosion will likely leave behind a crater.
Since new collectors often have difficulty telling the difference between dirt, goo, oxidation and corrosion, you can understand why the default advice for newbies is "don't clean coins". Because, as you can see, the answer to your question is "it's complicated", and complicated answers are not what we want to be giving to newbies.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
