Coins blackened by fires. Cleaning suggestions?

A. Old style dry cleaning fluid - CCl4 Carbon Tetrachloride. Perhaps a University Chem Department could be considered a source. As CCl4 is potentially carcinogenic it is no longer employed in the public fold. I believe it is the only substance able to dissolve carbon deposits (lampblack). Good luck and what a neat question!

A. If you are going to be at the University, you might want to try carbon disulfide. It is as nasty or worse than carbon tet, but it works better on burned carbon if I remember correctly from 40 years ago.

A. Hi, My home and my business were lost in the great San Diego wildfire on 10-26-2003. The common coins can be returned to the U.S. mint in Philadelphia for new ones. Unfortunately my coins were rare ones since I owned San Diego Coin Exchange. There is a place in Florida called Numismatic Conservation Services that may be able to save the very rare ones.

A. Chaplain Ray,
We are trying to clean coins also and I ran across an article that suggested soaking them in a bucket of olive oil. Said it could take days or months. Worth a try and less expensive than professional coin cleaning.
If coins are rare, it said not to clean them yourself because it could ruin their value.
Sorry about your Katrina experience!

A. Chaplain McPhearson,
As a victim of Katrina, I understand your plight. Like you one of the few things that survived was a large container of coins. My coins are not of the valuable sort so I have tried various household chemicals with no luck. I recently purchased industrial strength toilet bowl cleaner which contains hydrochloric acid. It seems to work although it does leave the coins quite dull. Hope this helps somehow. God Bless.

A. Hi, folks. My bet is that the best way to do this is with a rock tumbler [affil links] and a soft media like corn cob. The corrosion and discoloration will be softer than the raw metal and I think you can tumble it off then stop before you appreciably wear the markings off the coins. This is just a guess though.

Regards,

A. The best way to clean coins at home, is warm soapy water and a soft old toothbrush- start off by rinsing the coin with water, put a drop of Dawn or other dish soap on the coins, rub it with your fingertips while under the water stream- rinse and inspect- if you want to get it cleaner still, repeat the process while gently brushing it with the toothbrush- be sure to rinse the coin and brush constantly so as to not scratch or gouge the coin-

if you want it cleaner still, try soaking the coin in rubbing alcohol or lacquer thinner [on eBay or Amazon], then repeat the soap bath-

but usually I just do a light scrub with the dish soap, dry, and accept that as good enough

dish soap works really well with gold coins.

A lot of the "damage from cleaning" stories are old wives tales- use common sense- I'm buying gold coins at melt value, common dates - the coin is going to be worth at least melt value after being cleaned, and it may even be worth more because it looks a LOT better after being cleaned

toning on common gold coins is a 2 edged sword- some may prefer it, but most do not- I've seen common gold coins that looked a lot better after the light toning was removed.

A. We have a small company that was featured on The History Channel's Modern Marvels, that provides a service for fountain owners and charity beneficiaries.
It is (unofficially) non profit.

We clean and bank water damaged coins in about two weeks.
It also works for fire damaged coins. The fee is 25% with free pickup on routes through Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Shipping instructions are easy for clients out of this area.

If this info helps, please feel free to pass it on.
I would include the website but the rules don't allow it.
Hope this helps.

My best regards,
Walt

Walt is speaking of FountainCoins.com ... Hi, Walt. The editorial standards don't exactly forbid posting URLs, but they do discourage commercial postings based on 20 years of bad experiences. The next guy may make the point that their fee is only !!20%!! (surrounding it with bold face and exclamation points) -- and then the mud-slinging starts, with a 3rd guy calling the 2nd guy a cheat :-) This public forum seems to work very well when there is no commercial gain to be had from postings, but very poorly when there is :-( People are welcome to do paid advertising here or on google or anywhere they wish. But vested interest comments encourage spam and a race to the bottom; and what has happened several times is people with vested interests post with fictitious names, posing as satisfied customers :-( Yes, commercially motivated replies have ruined enough threads here that, yes, we discourage them :-) Regards, Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey April 4, 2011

  Thanks Jen. Sending precious coins to a numismatic conservation service is certainly an excellent idea!

But a number of other situations are mentioned on this page including fire damage to "a 5-gallon bucket of coins", salt water damage to "loose change in a tall plastic container" and "a large container of coins not of the valuable sort". Please consider the possibility that people are discussing different situations than you have in mind, not necessarily posting "awful things ... omg a ROCK TUMBLER??! WTH!?".

"Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story" -- The Desiderata

Regards,