[jamesslack]

where can i buy hydrosulfuric acid, so i can tone my coins. i tryed the acid you clean brick with and the acid thats in a car battery but its not like hydrosulfuric acid. i guess you can use hydrogen sulfide but its a very poisonous gas, i use liver of sulfur right now but i got a book on coin chemistry and it said i could use this other stuff but i cant fined it. any help would be great, thanks

[Borek]

You won't buy it as a solution. You may buy sulfides, you may buy thioacetamide. These are used in labs as a source of H₂S.

Don't ask me where, as all I have at hand are Warsaw addresses that will be of no use.

[jamesslack]

thanks for your time.

[MarZ]

You may try Sodium Hydrogen sulphate crystals which makes an acidic solution of H₂SO₄^2- ions. This used to come with Chemistry sets as replacment reagent of dilute Acid. Also included was Sodium Hydrogen Sulphite which might be useful for your use.

Side note - check about cleaning coins with electrolysis!

[Borek]

H₂SO₄^2-

Huh?

[MarZ]

  oops - HS0₄^-
A 1M solution will have a pH of 1.4.

[jamesslack]

so Sodium Hydrogen Sulphite  would tone my silver like liver of sulfur.

[MarZ]

I do not know, never tried but I wanted to give you an alternative idea since it is much more easy to find buying the reagents I suggested than hydrosulphuric acid. Sodium Hydrogen sulphite is used as an additive and I am sure is easy to find and cheap. It is used in Wine making for sure.  Google a bit around.

[jamesslack]

ok i order the Sodium Hydrogen Sulphite i sure hope it works, heres what im going to do, let me know if you think its not safe. im going to put the Sodium Hydrogen Sulphite in a tube with alittle water and heat it so a gas will come off it. i will have a cover on the tube with a hose comeing out of it and going into a jar with my coin init to see if it tones my silver coin.

[Borek]

I doubt sulfite will work the way you want it.

Honestly, I have just reread the thread and I doubt sulfuric acid will work either. I suppose you want your coins to be covered with oxides/sulfides - and neither of the sulfur oxyacids seems to be the right thing to use. But I can be wrong.

[MarZ]

I just tried a coin in Sodium Hydrogen Sulphate (not sulphite) solution (quickly a pich of the salt in 10ml water)  for the sake of this post and after 1 hour, I could see big improvement on the condition of the coin, but I do not know the long-term effect. 

Disclaimer: Please note that I just wanted to give you an alternative reagent to Sulphuric Acid not that Sodium Hydrogen Sulphite clean coins for sure!

[billnotgatez]

Does any of this stuff deteriorate the coin? Do you need to wash off the coin after use to prevent deterioration? Can you thoroughly wash it off and will the washing process be benign?

[Borek]

so i can tone my coins

What effect do you have in mind, and what material are these coins made of. Do you want o clean them, or do you want to make them look old. Are they copper/bronze/brass, or silver or even some other material?

[jamesslack]

the coin will be silver, and i want to tone the coin with pretty colors by using a gas type chemical. right now i use liver of sulfur to tone my coins, here's a picture of the silver coin.

[jamesslack]

heres a coin toned by useing a gas, but people wont tell you how they do it. so i got to try everything i can think of trying. the only people i know that would know how to do this is the smart people on this site that know what certain chemicals do. i know not a thing about chemicals but will keep trying with things i read. heres a picture of a pretty silver coin toned with a gas put to it in a jar and let it set for about 1-week to get the colors