Common house-hold cleaning solutuion for removing soot from burnt coins

DominusDeus

Some of you probably remember my post showing the "nicely toned" burnt barber quarter. From the same batch of burnt coins, I have 11 kennedy halves (no silver), and 3 quarters that were scorched. Is there any common mixture of stuff I can use (like vinegar and laundry detergent) that I can soak these in overnight to remove the crud and soot from them?

I don't plan on collecting these, except two canadian quarters and a 5 Fr coin that's basically ruined with some molten metal (I would've liked it too, if it weren't ruint).

Any solutions would he belpful in cleaning these so they (for the most part) can become spend-worthy.

MICHAELDIXON

One of the board members recommended E-Z Off oven cleaner for a Lincoln cent that had been burned. I tried it and it worked very well.

DesertRat

You might try a simple toothbrush and believe it or not...ordinary toothpaste.

DominusDeus

Well, one of the halves is now minty fresh, but no cleaner...

DesertRat

Awww, well sorry. It works on a lot of things but I guess burnt coins is not one of them.

Looks like the EZ-off might be your answer...makes sense, after all it is used to clean ovens.

DominusDeus

Don't have any EZoff though. Putting them through a mix of vinegar and tide. Seems to be working quite nicely.

Vinegar is acting as an acid, and the tide as an abrasive.

SPEEDracer

I took a few 2004 pennies from a roll to experiment with...granted I was motivated by the writings of mrpaseo...and I soaked them in different solvents to see what the reactions would be. I tried the following solutions for 24 hours...Scope, Dr Schols wart remover, lighter fluid, and smoething else that I can't remember. The only drastic change was the lighter fluid....which caused a really cool toning effect.