diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 9519896df..04f75d303 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -181,7 +181,6 @@ export(centre)
 export(change_code)
 export(change_scale)
 export(coef_var)
-export(coerce_to_numeric)
 export(colnames_to_row)
 export(column_as_rownames)
 export(compact_character)
diff --git a/R/data_restoretype.R b/R/data_restoretype.R
index 9b5eb71a9..fa3ee9c7d 100644
--- a/R/data_restoretype.R
+++ b/R/data_restoretype.R
@@ -21,13 +21,12 @@
 #' fixed <- data_restoretype(data, reference = iris)
 #' summary(fixed)
 #' @export
-
 data_restoretype <- function(data, reference = NULL, ...) {
   for (col in names(data)) {
     # No reference data (regular fixing) ----------------
     if (is.null(reference)) {
       if (is.character(data[[col]])) {
-        data[[col]] <- coerce_to_numeric(data[[col]])
+        data[[col]] <- .coerce_to_numeric(data[[col]])
       }
     } else {
       if (is.factor(reference[[col]]) && !is.factor(data[[col]])) {
@@ -36,11 +35,11 @@ data_restoretype <- function(data, reference = NULL, ...) {
       }
 
       if (is.numeric(reference[[col]]) && !is.numeric(data[[col]])) {
-        data[[col]] <- coerce_to_numeric(as.character(data[[col]]))
+        data[[col]] <- .coerce_to_numeric(as.character(data[[col]]))
       }
 
       if (is.character(reference[[col]]) && !is.character(data[[col]])) {
-        data[[col]] <- as.character(data[[col]])
+        data[[col]] <- .coerce_to_numeric(data[[col]])
       }
     }
   }
diff --git a/R/data_to_long.R b/R/data_to_long.R
index 0811f426c..7c828262f 100644
--- a/R/data_to_long.R
+++ b/R/data_to_long.R
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ data_to_long <- function(data,
   # create a temp id so that we know how to rearrange the rows once the data is
   # stacked
   not_stacked <- data[, not_selected, drop = FALSE]
-  not_stacked[["_Rows"]] <- coerce_to_numeric(row.names(data))
+  not_stacked[["_Rows"]] <- .coerce_to_numeric(row.names(data))
 
   # stack the selected columns
   stacked_data <- .stack(data[, cols, drop = FALSE])[, 2:1]
diff --git a/R/to_numeric.R b/R/to_numeric.R
index 687a83ca6..849bef830 100644
--- a/R/to_numeric.R
+++ b/R/to_numeric.R
@@ -266,20 +266,8 @@ to_numeric.character <- function(x,
 }
 
 
-
-#' Convert to Numeric (if possible)
-#'
-#' Tries to convert vector to numeric if possible (if no warnings or errors).
-#' Otherwise, leaves it as is.
-#'
-#' @param x A vector to be converted.
-#'
-#' @examples
-#' coerce_to_numeric(c("1", "2"))
-#' coerce_to_numeric(c("1", "2", "A"))
-#' @return Numeric vector (if possible)
-#' @export
-coerce_to_numeric <- function(x) {
+#' @keywords internal
+.coerce_to_numeric <- function(x) {
   tryCatch(as.numeric(as.character(x)),
     error = function(e) x,
     warning = function(w) x
diff --git a/man/coerce_to_numeric.Rd b/man/coerce_to_numeric.Rd
deleted file mode 100644
index 553a16bfc..000000000
--- a/man/coerce_to_numeric.Rd
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
-% Please edit documentation in R/to_numeric.R
-\name{coerce_to_numeric}
-\alias{coerce_to_numeric}
-\title{Convert to Numeric (if possible)}
-\usage{
-coerce_to_numeric(x)
-}
-\arguments{
-\item{x}{A vector to be converted.}
-}
-\value{
-Numeric vector (if possible)
-}
-\description{
-Tries to convert vector to numeric if possible (if no warnings or errors).
-Otherwise, leaves it as is.
-}
-\examples{
-coerce_to_numeric(c("1", "2"))
-coerce_to_numeric(c("1", "2", "A"))
-}