Andre's coin cleaning crayons

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Goldpick

Chris Johnson
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Hi guys, thought I would give these cleaning "crayons" a try out on a few partly toasted Victorian coins, mainly to see if they clean up well enough to warrant being carded.

They are made in France, and are currently being sold through Clegy's store website, and certainly won't break the bank. Two of the crayons are fine/mid tips for removing crud from the detail of the coin, the brass scraper is for removing major soiling, and the last crayon is actually fine steel wool for cleaning & finishing off the majority of the coin surface. Not sure what the material is in the first two crayons, look like carbon or something similar.

The pictured coin is an 1879 penny that has reasonably bad oxidation to the main face, whilst the obverse is not all too bad. I cleaned one half of the coin to see how well it would do, and am quite impressed with the results. The thing I like about this kit, is that it manages to remove most of the soiling and oxidation without removing the green patina that makes these coins so attractive. Of course that depends on how much the coin is cleaned, and the amount of pressure applied, just have to take it in stages to remove a layer at a time to see if the desired results are achieved. Thumbs up from me. :Y:

https://detectorist.com.au/products...clean-your-metal-detecting-finds-restore-them

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G'day Goldpick

Glad someone took the plunge, I've been thinking about them for a while but haven't been game.
The penny is looking good, did it take long?
Doesn't look like it will clean up the really green part, let us know what you think.

Daggy
 
Daggy said:
G'day Goldpick

Glad someone took the plunge, I've been thinking about them for a while but haven't been game.
The penny is looking good, did it take long?
Doesn't look like it will clean up the really green part, let us know what you think.

Daggy

The penny only took about 10 minutes to clean the whole face, ignore the freshly exposed copper on the top of the coin, that was field damage (hence why this is a test coin).

The penny is pretty corroded on the right half, but still managed to clean up enough to show some of the detail. Unfortunately there is nothing that will really return a coin to its former glory if too much oxidation is evident. Will have a go on a few other coins to see how they come up, and will post the results.

Here's the finished penny.

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This time a 1952 roo penny, forgot to take a before photo of the obverse, but it was already in pretty good shape. This is a really good way to clean coppers for display, especially the ones that have been thrown in the draw and forgotten about due to not knowing the best way to clean them.

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I really like the way the english penny turned out, the roo penny is pretty amazing, how long did it take and would you recommend it?
I can see it as being a relaxing afternoon picking away at a coin, I like the way it's going.

Daggy
 
Daggy said:
I really like the way the english penny turned out, the roo penny is pretty amazing, how long did it take and would you recommend it?
I can see it as being a relaxing afternoon picking away at a coin, I like the way it's going.

Daggy

Good job for a rainy day, I wouldn't use it on key date coins unless they are shagged and hence not worth much to collectors. How much soiling would you want to remove is purely down to the individual, some coins look great with just some removed, others can look more attractive if fully cleaned. Don't think I would use it on silvers, it would probably leave too many micro scratches on the .925 silvers, and citric acid is still the least invasive method for later 50/50 silvers. Although if you do have a non-collectable silver coins that you want to remove just enough black oxidation to give it that aged look, this kit will do the job.

Here's the last coin for tonight, 1917 half penny. Probably my favourite considering most commonwealth coppers regularly succumb to coin cancer.

Before:
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After:
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:eek: And here I am colouring in my coins with lead pencils and going through erasers like I own my own rubber plantation :rolleyes: :p
....................SOLD...cheers for showing GP ;) ..........I can chuck my tooth pick and paddle-pop stick collection out now........ :rolleyes:
The Coins came up sweet...nice one :cool: :Y: The Brass scalpel looks scary though :eek: 8) :lol:
 
Thanks Big Fella, way better than my crappy video.

Nice to see your getting results and that explains today's post run with a few sets of these heading around the country.

Thankyou so much for the review and demo of the pencils.

Cheers all

Clegy
 
Has anyone tried fine steel wool and graphite or carbon?

To me it just looks like graphite but the darker oilier graphite like the green builder pencils.
 
Are you able to take a zoomed in photo of a cleaned area as close as you can to show the microscratches/circles it leaves? Does it deposit a thin layer over the coin like paint or does it wipe off? Looks like an interesting idea
 
The crayons are much harder than graphite and leave no residue, on closer inspection ot looks to be made up of fibres with some sort of residue holding them together.

Atom, it doesn't actually scratch the copper coins due to the fact that you are only removing soiling and crud down to the patina layer, and not applying abrasives to the actual metal itself.

I'm sure if you get too heavy handed on the cleaning, you will eventually wear through the patina to the metal. As mentioned previously, just take it easy on initial cleaning and give the coin a good wipe down and check each time before proceeding any further. Even that half penny has a light patina on it, so extra care was needed to ensure that I didn't go overboard on it.

The fact it that unless you have found a key date coin, any coin from the ground isn't going to hold much value unless in pristine condition (extremely rare), hence I have no problem with giving them a clean.
 
Yeah Im sure it wasnt going to be the pencil that scratched, but just wondering what a closeup looks like because of the dust n grit getting between causing abraision/micros. My concern with cleaning coins is when you cant see a date, sonetimes its not till youve given it a quick water rub when you then may realise its 1872 penny or so. True its not old or valuable, but i rather a patina coin that a copper carbonate crusty thats been exposed from scratches. I think ill try a pen on the coppers as everything ive tried on ones like the example uve shown above, i hadnt been happy with results. The pencil keeping the patina is cool
 

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