Cleaning Proof Presidential Dollar Coins (Yikes!)

Go to Home Depot and get a can of acetone and put them in it for just a second or two and when you take them out rinse them in purified water dry them good (do not rub them) and when completely dry put them in safety flips. if you wanted to have them graded I would not do it though cause they will come back as cleaned. but just for your books it will be fine
good luck

Please read all safety precautions for when using acetone - do a search here on the forum for "acetone" and you'll get a lot of good information. It will not harm the coin when used properly.. it is used to remove organic matter so I'm not sure how much effect it will have on haze and spots.

Dip in EZ est coin cleaner for a couple seconds, rinse immediately with tap water until all solution is gone, pat dry never rub should remove most of the spotting store safely repeated redips can impair value

Thanks for the advice. I have some acetone in the garage from a recent painting project, and I happen to have a newish jar of EZest that I used to clean some old jewelry. I've got a few of the hazed coins, so I'll do some experiments with my "least favorite" presidents and report on the results (I'd have a hard time doing anything to the Washington or Lincoln coins, just out of principle). I'm familiar with the dangers of acetone, so I'll conduct my experiment outside and far away from my neighbor's cigars.

If neither of those chemicals work well, I'll pick up a bottle of MS70 and give that a try. I've got about 8 hazy/corroded coins, so I'm open to other suggestions as well.

I bought a couple of new mint sets to replace the ruined coins, so I figure that I might as well get some scientific/educational value from the hazy coins. I figure that even if I ruin them more, they're still worth a buck, then at a minimum I can show them to my son's scout troop as examples of what happens when you drop a proof coin into chemicals.

If you really don't care I suggest going to Walmart and at the jewlery counter you wil see several types of jewlery cleaners. I've found that the one for Silver works the best in taking haze, fingerprints, markings off coins. HOWEVER, you must remember to rinse completely with distilled water and thoes coins will always be ocnsidered CLEANED COINS.
Removing haze on a proof coin is really something that just doesn't work well regardless of the solution you use. Still, that jewlery cleaner helps a little.
For the price of those I too suggest just purchasing new ones. The amount of time and money purchasing and trying to clean those is really not worth the price. The cost of gasoline in your car alone shopping for cleaning stuff could be used to buy those.

Acetone MIGHT help with the haze but don't count on it. It will not help the spotting.

A commercial dip will take care of the haze and the spots but since the coin is a mainly copper alloy it will also result in an off color. Most commercial dips are much stronger than really needed so I would recommend diluting the dip with distilled water. I can't say what the best dilution should be but it should be something between 10% and 50% dip and the balance distilled water. I would probably go with the higher dilution. That will slow the reaction and you can watch the coin and remove it as soon as the haze and spots are gone. With the higher concentrations you can't get the coin in and out fast enough and you risk overdoing it. Rinse THROUGHLY with distilled water. Even the smallest traces of dip residue remaining on the coin will eventually cause spotting and damage to occur. Personally I prefer to dyr the coin with a flowing rinse of pure acetone. The acetone will rinse away the water and dissolve the last traces of it and then evaporate away in a few seconds carrying away the last traces of water. Letting the water air dry risks spots, and blot drying risks hairlines.

Contact me ... privately.

John Lorenzo
Numismtist