Home World & Ancient Coins Forum

Cleaning Chinese Cash

Can anyone give me advice on cleaning out the crud that gets in the Chinese characters?
Corrupting youth since 2004

Comments

  • laurentyvanlaurentyvan Posts: 4,243 ✭✭✭
    Define crud... some of it moves with a little acetone soak and judicious application of a toothpick or cotton swab, a method I've used a few times with some success.
    One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
    is that you end up being governed by inferiors. – Plato
  • Crud = 600 years of packed in dirt.
    Corrupting youth since 2004
  • JohnZJohnZ Posts: 1,732
    What laurentyvan said. I've had good results with acetone. Just be sure to get the pure stuff from a hardware store. Nail polish removers contain a plethora of additives. Also, rinse with lots of distilled water. Tap water is too hard, and will leave mineral deposits.

    We ARE watching you.

    image
  • spoonspoon Posts: 2,798 ✭✭✭
    Give it the good ol' olive oil/acetone treatment and then use a brass pick to gently get the tough stuff out if a toothpick won't work.

    edit: brass, not bronze
  • Yeah, but the problem is that Chinese cash often has high relief characters that have small spaces in between.

    Like this character: image
    Corrupting youth since 2004
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,194 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Toothpick after an olive oil soak, or, if you're like me and too impatient for olive oil to work, use Vaseline. Follow up with a light rub with a paper towel, to remove the excess Vaseline (and with it, a lot of green crud). That probably won't hurt anything.

    Try the Vaseline rub with a paper towel on even an average circulated Wheat penny, and you'll be surprised how much greenish brown crud comes off. The Vaseline leaves the surfaces nice and glossy but is nonpermanent and won't affect the color of a coin.

    Explore collections of lordmarcovan on CollecOnline, management, safe-keeping, sharing and valuation solution for art piece and collectibles.
  • spoonspoon Posts: 2,798 ✭✭✭
    An itty-bitty pick should work. Other than that I don't know of anything that could without stripping the metal (acids, electroshock).
  • Maybe I need to buy a Dremel drill or use a dentist's drill. image
    Corrupting youth since 2004
  • Thanks everyone.
    Corrupting youth since 2004
  • santeliasantelia Posts: 138 ✭✭
    I've also used lemon juice; read it somewhere. If it's an older common coin, like Northern Sung cash I wouldn't worry too much. They are generally cheap ($1) and if you can clean it enough to identify it, it generally goes up in value. Be patient with the soaking, and change the stuff when it gets contaminated or cloudy.
    Chinese cash enthusiast
  • sumnomsumnom Posts: 5,963 ✭✭✭
    Do be careful though, you don't want to take up part of the coin, or break it. I have seen cash coins snap.
  • newsmannewsman Posts: 2,658 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Can anyone give me advice on cleaning out the crud that gets in the Chinese characters? >>



    How about steel wool? image
Sign In or Register to comment.