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1866 Indian after quick hot peroxide bath :thumbup:
- Thread starter Ray-Mo.
- Start date
Congrats on the 1866 indian!!! Is that a rare/valuable year?
How do you do your peroxide baths? What type of peroxide do you use? How much peroxide do you put in your container? How long do you heat it and how long do you keep the coin in the solution and what do you do when you take the coin out to finish the cleaning. I have used the peroxide and the coins come out looking worse than before they went in. I know I have to be doing something wrong.
Thank you for any help you can give,
Jason
How do you do your peroxide baths? What type of peroxide do you use? How much peroxide do you put in your container? How long do you heat it and how long do you keep the coin in the solution and what do you do when you take the coin out to finish the cleaning. I have used the peroxide and the coins come out looking worse than before they went in. I know I have to be doing something wrong.
Thank you for any help you can give,
Jason
diggin jimmy hoffa
Member
Man that cleaned up great.
That peroxide bath seems to pull all the crud out and really makes the details pop.
L8r
DJH
That peroxide bath seems to pull all the crud out and really makes the details pop.
L8r
DJH
OhioCoinHunter
New member
That is one sweet Indian!
Chris(SoCenWI)
Well-known member
n/t
DirtFlipper
New member
I'm sure there are variations, but here's one that's worked for me. I only like to do 1-3 coins at a time, so I just use a small shot glass. I use 'regular' peroxide in the brown bottle (3% type). (It comes in those brown bottles because peroxide breaks down in light - more on that later).
I fill about half the shot glass with peroxide and then heat it in the microwave for only about 15 seconds. It's plenty hot, but not quite boiling. I drop the cents in, and then cover the whole thing with something to block the light (like a soup can). I find that it is able to work a bit longer by not being exposed to the light. You can tell that it's still working if there's still a fair amount of 'fizzing' going on. Most of the dirt lifting action will happen in the first couple minutes, so then I take them out and rinse in clean water. If it looks like there's still some more dirt to go, then I'll let them soak (sometimes for an hour or more).
Now the caveats:
- cleaning coins (any type of cleaning) will generally greatly reduce their numismatic value, so the conventional wisdom is to not clean coins of value.
- the peroxide treatment will darken the copper coins.
- it will work on other types of coins (like nickels), but only do coins of the same type together (no mixing). It will still darken them, and I wouldn't do silver coins this way.
- use a glass container if possible (so as to not mix in other metals)
- if the coin(s) lie flat and don't move or get moved, there will tend to be a small lighter colored circle formed where the peroxide didn't quite reach it (like the center of the side of the coin that was touching the container). Flipping the coin over part way through will avoid this.
- peroxide will not work if the coin has first been cleaned/treated in olive oil
Because of the darkening problem, I've since switched over to using a sponge of melamine foam (marketed as a cleaning supply known as Magic Eraser). Does a really great job when the issue is just dirt, and leaves the nice color intact. More labor intensive, but the results are worth it I think.
Peroxide lifts the dirt out of the surfaces of the coin, so if the coin has porosity issues (pitting), then lifting the dirt off will tend to make it look a bit worse. This is because the dirt was 'filling in' the porous aspect. If the coin has a flaky suraface at all, the peroxide can also lift this off (as can just about any cleaning). I think this is why some coins look 'worse' after peroxide than before. But if the coin is pretty solid with good surfaces, the peroxide will do a good job, with just the darkening as the side effect. At least that's been my experience.
I recommend experimenting with some copper Memorial cents before anything else, to get the hang of what works for you. The big bottles of peroxide are like a buck, so can do lots of coins.
1866 is a really super date - teriffic find!
HH,
DirtFlipper
I fill about half the shot glass with peroxide and then heat it in the microwave for only about 15 seconds. It's plenty hot, but not quite boiling. I drop the cents in, and then cover the whole thing with something to block the light (like a soup can). I find that it is able to work a bit longer by not being exposed to the light. You can tell that it's still working if there's still a fair amount of 'fizzing' going on. Most of the dirt lifting action will happen in the first couple minutes, so then I take them out and rinse in clean water. If it looks like there's still some more dirt to go, then I'll let them soak (sometimes for an hour or more).
Now the caveats:
- cleaning coins (any type of cleaning) will generally greatly reduce their numismatic value, so the conventional wisdom is to not clean coins of value.
- the peroxide treatment will darken the copper coins.
- it will work on other types of coins (like nickels), but only do coins of the same type together (no mixing). It will still darken them, and I wouldn't do silver coins this way.
- use a glass container if possible (so as to not mix in other metals)
- if the coin(s) lie flat and don't move or get moved, there will tend to be a small lighter colored circle formed where the peroxide didn't quite reach it (like the center of the side of the coin that was touching the container). Flipping the coin over part way through will avoid this.
- peroxide will not work if the coin has first been cleaned/treated in olive oil
Because of the darkening problem, I've since switched over to using a sponge of melamine foam (marketed as a cleaning supply known as Magic Eraser). Does a really great job when the issue is just dirt, and leaves the nice color intact. More labor intensive, but the results are worth it I think.
Peroxide lifts the dirt out of the surfaces of the coin, so if the coin has porosity issues (pitting), then lifting the dirt off will tend to make it look a bit worse. This is because the dirt was 'filling in' the porous aspect. If the coin has a flaky suraface at all, the peroxide can also lift this off (as can just about any cleaning). I think this is why some coins look 'worse' after peroxide than before. But if the coin is pretty solid with good surfaces, the peroxide will do a good job, with just the darkening as the side effect. At least that's been my experience.
I recommend experimenting with some copper Memorial cents before anything else, to get the hang of what works for you. The big bottles of peroxide are like a buck, so can do lots of coins.
1866 is a really super date - teriffic find!
HH,
DirtFlipper