100% extra virgin Olive oil vs 100% olive oil

blong10

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Lots of times people just say things and others repeat it until it's true. I'm sure you know extra virgin is just the first press and it's considered to have the best flavor. There are as many flavors of olive oil as there varieties of olives.
Can I ask what your using the oil for? Removing corrosion?

You could experiment and tell the results. Support or kill the theory.
 

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Lots of times people just say things and others repeat it until it's true. I'm sure you know extra virgin is just the first press and it's considered to have the best flavor. There are as many flavors of olive oil as there varieties of olives.
Can I ask what your using the oil for? Removing corrosion?

You could experiment and tell the results. Support or kill the theory.

For corrosion on old coins I was just searching and came across a thread on friendly metal detecting forum s and that's where I heard it
 

I am of the opinion that olive oil, being a vegetable product, will have a certain amount of pH to it, higher or lower, and acidic qualities that may be less-kind to the coin. I would think that mineral oil, being inert, would be the best. Do any of you agree?
 

Anyone else know or tested it
 

Good Question

I've heard the opposite..
Extra Virgin Olive Oil is less Acidic & better so I hear.

I even bought a bottle a-while back labeled "Low Acidity" EVOO.

Hmmm...?????
 

I am of the opinion that olive oil, being a vegetable product, will have a certain amount of pH to it, higher or lower, and acidic qualities that may be less-kind to the coin. I would think that mineral oil, being inert, would be the best. Do any of you agree?

One would think .. Mineral Oil would be better?????

I have used both ' There have been Wheat's & an IH or 2 that I have let sit in a bottle for 3+ years With no extra Noticeable damage Done to the Coins.'
Also it did not seem to help ( after the first soaking of a week , the coins were scrubbed & looker better) but the very long soaking after did not help much if at all. Cause the Corrosion from the ground had done it Damage ' Pitting Mostly'

I have soaked coins in mineral oil also IMO . It seemed to help ' soaking times were 1-4 weeks.
but
For some reason the EV Olive Oil works better 'maybe it's just me'
& Works best For me If I let them soak a form 4 days to a month.

Nothing but a file will fix Deep Pitting..lol
 

And the debate rages on! I love it. I find this stuff interesting. I probably should have been a chemist - not the RV in the desert kind. :laughing7: For a non-chemist, I've actually had a lot of study on lubricants and adhesives through the various jobs I've had. Lots of self-study in order to solve problems attached to my work.

I love these type of debates because we're operating on conjecture, being how we've had stunning successes on each side of the fence. The big difference is that mineral oil is mineral, and olive oil is organic. Oils, both organic and petroleum, will evaporate and leave a varnish residue. What is in that varnish that you want on your coins?

Organic oils are in a constant state of decomposition, and petroleum oils are as well, but the petroleum (mineral) oils have already been processed by a million years of heat and pressure and their chemical composition has been transformed into longer molecular chains, which will break down less easily. The resulting varnish will most-likely last longer and act like a sealant. Not a bad deal.

It would also be unfair to not give credit to organic oils. Olive oil and linseed oil has been used in paintings that have lasted a thousand years. Oils used for varnish on million-dollar Stradivarius violins have certainly stood the test of time. It probably doesn't matter.

Use the one that works for your tastes, because none of us will live long enough to notice any change in the finished product. :thumbsup:
 

I use extra virgin, but we are cooking food not coins with it...[emoji12]
 

You want the cheaper oil. They have to use heat to extract it which results in a more acidic oil. you WANT the acidic oil to do the cleaning, otherwise you just get a slippery coin.
 

We may never know. I was watching a cooking show on PBS and the subject of olive oil came up. The host said the USA is a dumping ground for olive oil. Seems Europe has tough standards as to what can be called "extra virgin" and the US doesn't. So they dump their rejected oil on us and it gets labeled XV. There is sticker shock for the good stuff. Think $30 liter.
 

Interesting .....hmmmm
 

We may never know. I was watching a cooking show on PBS and the subject of olive oil came up. The host said the USA is a dumping ground for olive oil. Seems Europe has tough standards as to what can be called "extra virgin" and the US doesn't. So they dump their rejected oil on us and it gets labeled XV. There is sticker shock for the good stuff. Think $30 liter.

Hmmmm, that really muddies the waters then.
 

I've had a toasted two-cent piece soaking in olive oil (extra-virgin) for nearly a week - I'm going to give it another week or so before I try picking some of the crud off of it with a wooden toothpick. This is the first time I've tried the olive oil method.

Possibly stupid question: when I finally take the coin out, do I want to completely wash the olive oil off of it (eg, with soap and water), or do I want to just wipe it off and leave any remaining oil residue to "protect" the coin from moisture?
 

I've been using mineral oil for a couple years now and am not getting all that great of results. I've read all kinds of good results people get from olive oil....so next week I'm becoming a convert. I'll be back later on with a little better informed decision on how it went. (Better informed on my part.) This forum has some of the best and most experienced people around. You guys amaze me every time I log on.
 

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