Cleaning Your Coins - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 7 / Views: 7,623
national dealer Pillar of the Community United States 2724 Posts	Posted 02/04/2005 09:14 am Cleaning coins is one of the taboos in the hobby. It will adversely effect the value of any collectable coin. Cleaning includes, soap and water, wiping, rubbing, alcohol, acetone, commercial cleaners, and jewelry cleaners. Any form of cleaning will remove the original luster the coin had, leaving a dull appearance. Cleaning is easily spotted by dealers and most collectors. Cleaned coins usually lose 30% or more of their wholesale/retail value. Conservation: This is a relatively new proceedure introduced to the coin hobby. Many became aware of the conservation services after the last couple of shipwrecked recovered coins. This process is becoming widely accepted throughout the hobby. The coins when conserved by a professional service do not harm the coins surfaces. A good article written here by NCS. Recommended reading. http://www.ncscoin.com/ Accepted cleaning: There are a few times when cleaning should be considered. (should only be done by a professional). PVC damage, tape residue, very ugly toning. If you have coins that do not warrant the costs of professional cleaning, yet fall under the conditions of needing cleaned, do so only with proper coin cleaning chemicals. Home made cleaners should never ever be used. Remember that any cleaned coin will substantially lose any value it had while original. Report this Post to the Staff

nohope587 Pillar of the Community United States 5953 Posts	Posted 02/05/2005 7:52 pm I have a fair amount of coins that have what I can only describe as dirt on them and a couple that have become very dusty. should I leave them as is, or is there a safe way to remove surface contamination ? Report this Post to the Staff
Susanlynn9 Forum Mom United States 5877 Posts	Posted 02/05/2005 8:01 pm If the coins in question are valuable or you are intending to sell them, I recommend contacting NCS to have them conserved. If they are not particularly valuable money-wise (so not worth the fees for NCS)and you are not planning to sell them, I would suggest an acetone bath. Except for copper, pure acetone (not nail polish remover) should remove contaminants. You need to be sure that you are in a very well-ventilated area. And do not wipe them at all. Acetone will evaporate very quickly. Let them air-dry. I would not suggest this for anything other than damaging contaminants such as PVC residue or to stop corrosion. Copper will react in the acetone and change its color. I don't have a recommendation for copper. Report this Post to the Staff
catman Rest in Peace United States 954 Posts	Posted 02/06/2005 11:08 am Hey Susan, Are you saying that you shouldn't use an S.O.S. pad to clean your coins..? catman Report this Post to the Staff
Susanlynn9 Forum Mom United States 5877 Posts	Posted 02/06/2005 12:41 pm quote: Originally posted by catman Hey Susan, Are you saying that you shouldn't use an S.O.S. pad to clean your coins..? catman Only if you are planning to use cleanser with the S.O.S. pad so you can get the full "whizzed" effect [:0] Report this Post to the Staff
nohope587 Pillar of the Community United States 5953 Posts	Posted 02/06/2005 3:00 pm Unfortunately most are copper so acetone is not an option. the coins are not valuable enough to send away to be "Conserved" A dusting with a paint brush would probably do the trick but since the first day of my coin collecting habbit the rule has been never clean. Its just when I take pictures of them they look realy bad. Oh and Susan if you are reading this then a spell checker here would be nice. English was never my strong point. Report this Post to the Staff
Susanlynn9 Forum Mom United States 5877 Posts	Posted 02/06/2005 3:25 pm I'm not sure what to recommend for copper coins. I have noticed the need for a spellchecker (from lots of posts ). Once I get the Poll modification uploaded, I'll look for a spellchecker. Report this Post to the Staff
rggoodie Moderator United States 23537 Posts	Posted 04/05/2005 10:47 pm Jumping off the deep end i know cleaning is taboo BUT here is a link to a site where they did experiments cleaning coins http://tomross.ancients.info/ Experiment are interesting, once again but iTony I read your article on the coin cleaning experiment. Calgon Coca-Cola Distilled Water Gringgotts Kaboom Lemon Juice Olive Oil Oxi-Clean Rubbing Alcohol TSP Duplex WD-40 Simple Green Could not find follow up. Is it posted somewhere? What did you end up liking best? It looks like Coca-Cola, lemon juice and Olive oil worked the best for you? May I have permission to post the link to your experiment on some of my coin chat forums? have received the following email from he experimentor I apologize if I have not responded earlier than now. Please feel free to link to the site if you would like… I have not yet managed to get the final results up for the page… but it is my plan (of course has been for about a year now). I also have additional chemicals to list… In the end I would say that I liked a number of them for different reasons… Distilled Water is by far the safe and easy choice … just takes more time. Kaboom works well in diluted form as long as you have time to stay on top of it… it can very quickly clean the coin of patina in stronger strengths. Vuplex (not duplex) is a good strong cleaner that is used to clean painting, grave stones, etc… again works well on some types of dirt. Gringgotts … there are now three formula’s .. they go from kinda mild to tough.. and one can be used for treating Bronze Disease. I have had good luck using Gringgotts as instructed (boiling etc..) but not so good luck using it cold. The latest chemical that has bubbled to the top is RID-X or SeptoBac … it is a septic tank (waste treatment) chemical used to break down organic substances…. So as long as the patina is not organic (which most have not been in my experience) it is very safe. Not to mention that it is the only chemical I have found that will not hurt a silvered coin. Sorry for the late follow up… I was in the middle of an audit and am just now cleaning up my inbox. Thanks, Tony Just if you want to play with fire! rggoodie aka Richard "catch em doing something right" Report this Post to the Staff
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