See how to clean OLD COINS without damaging them! SAFE coin cleaning methods + Reasons to be EXTRA CAREFUL when cleaning coins
Can you clean coins without losing value? Yes – but there are only a few expert ways to clean coins without damaging them! In this video, you will learn how to clean coins at home YOURSELF… safely.
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⚡TIMESTAMPS FROM THE VIDEO⚡
00:00 – How To Clean Coins Without Damaging Them At Home
00:10 – Supplies Needed
01:23 – Tips For Cleaning A Burnt U.S. Quarter Coin
02:03 – How To Clean Coins Using Water
03:06 – How To Clean Coins Using Acetone Nail Polish Remover
06:12 – How To Clean Coins Professionally
07:54 – RESULT: What A Cleaned Coin Looks Like
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hey! This is Josh with The Fun Times Guide to Coins and I’m here to talk about how to clean coins without damaging them. Now, you see here I’ve got a bottle of 100% acetone nail polish remover. I’ve got this pie pan right here — an aluminum pie pan. I’ve got this nice soft cloth right here — a fabric cloth. I’m at my bathroom sink — with the stopper by the way deployed so as not to allow coins to go down the drain.
You’re probably going, “Gee Josh, where’s the ketchup? Where’s the vinegar? Where’s the baking soda? The salt? The toothpaste? You know… all the stuff you typically see listed in these videos [about cleaning coins]. Unfortunately, almost all those chemicals that I just mentioned are caustic and damaging to coins. They’re either acidic, they’re abrasive, or otherwise can impart irreparable damage to the coin’s surface and thus lower its value.
So you might have surmised by this point that there are very few ways to clean a coin safely. And, in fact, that’s correct. In fact, there are 2 main ways that a person at home could actually clean a coin safely with the hope of achieving some decent results that won’t lend to the coin being damaged — and thus worth less than it was before you cleaned it.
We’ll start with the safest method — the easiest method. And that’s to simply run a coin under water — tepid water. We’ll take this… what do we have here… a 2009. We have a 2009 American Samoa / America The Beautiful Quarter. And you know what? It’s seen some life! It’s got some wear obviously. It’s got some luster — as you can see there around the edges of the periphery of the obverse (or the head side) and the reverse (or the tail side). But it does have some discoloration and some light… maybe some light verdigris… some light green
surface contamination there. So I’m gonna run it through the water first — with the hopes that it removes a lot of that surface debris. I don’t know if it will work or not, but we’ll try.
You’ll see that I’m pulling the hot and cold spigots here to allow for a tepid water temperature. I’m gonna run it under that water just for a little short bit here to try and remove the debris. You’ll note that I’m running my thumb over the surface — not really rubbing the coin per se. I’m just trying to distribute the water and make sure that all the different parts of the surface have been soaked. And let’s see… just a few more seconds. I’m gonna turn the water off. Let’s go ahead and pat dry this quarter and see how it looks.
Now again, I’m not going to rub the quarter. I’m just going to go ahead and pat dry it. That way, I’m not going to damage the surface by running the nap of the towel over the surface of the coin and thus impart hairlines and scratches that’ll make it worth less than it is. We’ve got here a quarter that looks a little bit happier — but yeah, it’s still got some discoloration on there and some light verdigris it looks like over the design. So, I’m going to go ahead and I’m going to dip this coin in acetone.
Now, a note on acetone… It is safe for coins to be exposed to acetone for a short bath time, but do NOT expose yourself (your bare skin) to acetone. Make sure that you’re using it in a very well-ventilated room or outdoors. I’m in the bathroom of course — as I mentioned earlier. But I’ve got a window here open, so that allows for ventilation. You know… allow fumes out the window. I’m gonna go ahead and pour just a bit of acetone into this pan. And note I’m using an aluminum pie pan again — because acetone will eat through plastic. So… let’s go ahead and make sure that it’s on the surface there. Okay, very good. I’m going to dip this quarter into the acetone. Make sure it’s fully submerged. A bit more acetone to make sure it’s fully covered. Now, I’ll let this coin soak for like maybe — oh gosh — just a few brief moments. So let it just soak in. But the goal here is to again remove these surface contaminants and any debris. This is NOT going to make the coin look brand new. That’s not the goal here. It’s to simply remove the debris and any surface issues that could damage the coin further. Okay, it’s pretty well submerged. I’ll let it sit just a bit longer. I’ll take it out and we’ll see what happened. Alright, let’s go ahead and pull it out and see what we’ve got here. Alright. Let’s see. Now… WELL!
The acetone did remove a lot of that verdigris. There’s just a little bit on there. But you know, it’s a lot better than it was. But you’ll note it did not really change the color of the coin per se. It’s still got that kind of greenish brown toning. And that really is toning. You can’t remove that without damaging the coin. Toning discoloration is usually a sign of environmental damage. So this coin may have been exposed to… oh gosh, it could have been exposed to sulfur fumes, gasoline, it might have been submerged for a little while in water. I have no idea what this coin has seen in its years since being struck. This is not an error.
A lot of folks will ask us at The Fun Times Guide to Coins if their coin is an error because it looks like it’s just like has a dark color or a light color or whatever. Almost always in cases like this… this is not clad layers missing or gold. This is simply just environmental damage — discoloration due to the coin’s environment in which it has been for who knows how long. You know what? It did… the acetone did take off the verdigris. Look at that! It did work. So what we did here was we were able to at least prevent further damage to this coin through the verdigris which can eat through a coin’s surface. It may have already done that perhaps — because I’m sure it’s been there for a little while. But at least this has helped to stem the tide of any further damage.
We’ll go ahead and rinse this coin off under running water and we’ll pat dry it and call it a day with that. A lot of folks at this point are going, “Well gee, if I wanna make my coin look brand new or further improve its appearance, how do I do that… and safely?” The answer to that question really is you can’t always do it yourself. In fact, in most cases, you will not be able to make a coin look brand new and do so in a way that will not damage it. You just can’t.
There are services out there that will attempt to restore or conserve a coin’s surface… to remove heavy spotting… to remove verdigris… to remove other contaminants that can make a coin lose its value over time. There are a couple third-party grading services — like Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guarantee Company (NGC) — that each offer their own conservation and restoration arms of service, whereby you can submit a coin to them and they will attempt to safely remove the damaging elements of the surface contamination or help to try to make the coin look better — without cleaning it, without damaging it. There’s never any guarantees that they will be able to achieve those effects that you want to impart. But these are professionals who know how to restore and conserve coins carefully.
If running water or acetone baths don’t help you achieve the effects and results you want, I would therefore recommend going to either PCGS or NGC and look into using one of their conservation and restoration services to provide more help for your coin. I’m gonna take this quarter out of its cloth. And yeah, it looks better in the sense that the verdigris is gone and it has less debris on it. Obviously, it’s not brand new — and it doesn’t look brand new. But that wasn’t the goal anyway. It was just simply help preserve the coin surface and prevent further damage.
Hopefully, this segment’s helpful to you. If you like the video, please go ahead and share it. Follow our feed here at The Fun Times Guide to Coins. We have articles too on TheFunTimesGuide.com that can help you to become a better coin collector and you’ll learn tips and tricks like this — on how to safely clean coins and how to go at other parts of the hobby in ways that will help you become a better — more expert — coin collector.
Thank you for your time, and good luck!
