How Do You Clean Your Coins?

Welcome to CCF! Please use the search line here on CCF. You'll find lots of prior posts about cleaning coins. Some have posted their method of cleaning with before/after photos. Be careful, read and learn before you attempt to clean a coin. Usually you should never clean collectible coins. But if they are encrusted, found in ground etc. there are ways to carefully remove some of the crud. Do not use anything abrasive that would scratch the surface. Many use acetone. To preserve a coin with oxidation, verdigris, I've used a product called Verdicare.

As a general rule never clean modern coins,ancients are ok.
Here is some info:https://www.coincommunity.com/forum...y_ID=2987178
John1

Do hope to see full, large and sharp images of the obverse and reverse.

If you are a beginner collector, I would recommend no type of cleaning as inexperience with the hobby leads to damaging the coins. Many of us did it at one point, might as well avoid it altogether.

That has been discussed before. Use the search box upper left of page for tons of info.
John1

The first rule of cleaning coins is don't. Most coins are worth more uncleaned, and cleaning them can destroy the monetary value.

The second rule of cleaning coins is practice on worthless coins first. Get some ordinary nickels, cents, junk silver, corroded Indian Head cents, whatever. Don't start with anything valuable.

As a cleaning beginner, I've had some decent results with 99% pure acetone on filthy, gunked, and painted circulated Jefferson nickels. Others here have worked near-miracles on metal detecting finds.

If I had an 1888/7 IHC, I definitely would NOT attempt to clean it myself.... https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin...7-1c-bn/2169

Leave it as-is or have it done professionally.

I would not. "Oxidation" is a normal and acceptable part of a coin's aging. Removing it is seen as removing its history. If you truly wish to avoid "damaging the coin any further", then (a) don't remove the oxidation, and (b) put the coin in a moisture-proof, airtight container to prevent further oxidation.

Although oxidation is technically a form of mild corrosion, using the word "corrosion" is normally limited to the more severe rust-like formations on coins caused by adverse chemical conditions.


Three problems here.

The first is a laws-of-physics problem: putting pure distilled water in an ultrasonic bath doesn't actually do very much at all. For an ultrasonic bath to be effective, you need to be able to allow microscopic bubbles to form and implode within the solution inside the bath - this the where the ultrasonic cleaning action comes from, tiny little shock waves from tiny little imploding bubbles. But to get that cavitation to happen, you need to reduce the surface tension - the surface tension of pure water is too high. So you need to add some kind of detergent or surfactant to the solution.

The second is an engineering problem. Ideally, you want to completely immerse the coin in the solution, without it touching anything else. The ultrasonic bath will make the coin vibrate rapidly back and forth, and if the coin is touching anything while it's doing this, there is the likelihood of "rub" happening on the points of the coin that are touching the object in question. You want to avoid the coin rubbing against anything solid - the sides of the bath, the base of the bath, or any kind of rack or holder used to hold the coin in the bath. Even a piece of string would cause rubbing. So unless they invent antigravity or devise some kind of fancy electromagnetic or hydraulic suspension effect to force the coin to "levitate" in the middle of the solution without it touching anything solid, the water bath will almost certainly cause high point wear on a coin. Whether or not such damage would be detectable to the eye, would depend on the strength of the bath and how long it was submerged.

Thirdly, there's the chemistry problem... if the goal is oxidation removal then an ultrasonic bath isn't going to remove oxidation. Sonication removes "dirt", and oxidation isn't dirt. Oxidation forms by chemical reaction, and you need another chemical reaction to happen to make it go away. Unfortunately, such chemical reactions almost always also attack the underlying metal, causing even further damage - which is why we say "never clean coins".

Finally, to answer the question in the thread title, personally:


Coins with PVC goo, sticky-tape residue, varnish or similar stuff stuck to the surface, get rinsed with a couple of rinses of acetone.

Coins with heavy corrosion - and are thus otherwise undesirable - I sometimes experiment with various chemicals, either acids, bases, or chelating agents. I've had mixed success, and the end-result is almost invariably a "cleaned coin" that nobody would want - which is why I only treat badly corroded coins that nobody would want anyway.