KOTCT
Castle Courtyard => General Discussion / Questions => Topic started by: CoinCrusader42 on July 29, 2009, 06:22:23 PM
-
My wife recently gave me a half used can of acetone. She had finished with it and wondered if I wanted the remainder.
I do have about a half dozen very dirty coins, as well as a handful of ancients which were dug up and not cleaned.
How do I go about cleaning my very dirty coins with acetone?
Any help will be appreciated.
:) :) :) :)
-
Acetone is a solvent ( was extensively used for removing nailpolish ) Being the best solvent there is it will damage the ouside of fridges and vacuumcleaners if you use it to remove the sticky remains of the stuck on price tag . So it removes glue , fat, grease, nailpolish etc damaging all kinds of plastic .
In coins its best known use is to remove plasticiser from old 2x2's that contained pvc ( at one time recommended by bodyslabbers that sent coins back with plasticizer deposits on them )
Fresh pure acetone is a miracle cure for fingerprints on goldcoins .
On silver coins it is used to degrease the coin prior to a silver dip such as eZest to be sure that the dipacid eats eavenly away the surface of the coin without having greasy protected areas .
On copper the results may be good or very bad depending on the quality of the acetone and the state of the copper
When good acetone is used well the use of acetone cannot be detected by any slabber agency
Acetone works best at room temperature . Beware the fumes are harmfull and plastic gloves should be used ( If you don't your fingers will degrease and go whithish and hurt untill you put body lotion on )
This being said ; you cannot clean coins with acetone unless the dirty is really grimy from fingergrease and even then don't do it on coppers
The ancients normally are put into oil for months if necessary . If you know a dealer they can use electrolisis which is very fast way to nice or ruin
On dirty coins the very first try is allways a strong liquid soap mixture .
Of course if you only what them clean you can use steelwool and copperpolish ;D
-
Is it pure acetone or finger nail polish remover?
-
Nail Polish remover is a no-no for coins. It contains other chemicals that could completely ruin a coin. If you must use acetone, make sure you have Pure acetone.
-
It is pure acetone.
:) :) :) :)
-
As PYW said, acetone isn't much good for getting rid of "dirt"; it gets rid of "grime" and "sticky stuff" - paint, old stickytape, PVC residue, that sort of thing. Metal detector finds and uncleaned ancient coins probably aren't going to be affected at all by acetone. It won't hurt them, however, and leaving coins in acetone to soak won't hurt either, but it will rarely help; if the "dirt" doesn't start to come off after 30 seconds in the acetone, leaving it in there for longer isn't going to make any difference. Whatever the "dirt" is, it isn't soluble in acetone.
The acetone will, however, come in handy if you decide to treat those crusty coins with olive oil or some similar oil; once you're done, you'll want to be getting all the oil off, and acetone is excellent at doing just this.
And, as has been said, acetone isn't entirely safe. It's more flammable than petrol, so no smoking, fires or heat sources nearby. If you get it on your fingers, it'll suck the oil right out of your pores, leaving them dry (and stained white from the oils left behind after the acetone evaporated). It's not particularly toxic unless you drink it, but the vapours can cause dizziness, so use it in a well ventilated area. Don't use it on a painted or polished wood floor or surface, unless you were planning on re-varnishing or re-painting it sometime soon.
And keep it away from plastic, especially polystyrene; a tiny splash of acetone can depolymerize a surprisingly large block of polystyrene foam (a fact which chemistry teachers and demonstrators know very well), turning it into a little puddle of goo. Use only glass, metal or ceramic jars and containers.
-
Don't forget to rinse it off afterwards with distilled water and pat dry, don't rub.
-
Nail Polish remover is a no-no for coins. It contains other chemicals that could completely ruin a coin. If you must use acetone, make sure you have Pure acetone.
Yep. Thats why I was asking if it was pure or not.
-
Have now used some.
Results were good.
Thanks for the information and advise.
:) :) :) :)