Cleaning A 1928-P Peace Dollar Key Date Help!!

Maybe I will go to a coin dealer this week. It seems to be the general consensus

As "junky" as it may be it is potentially one of only a few...so in the effort of saving a rare 1928-P no matter of the condition I think I'll risk it to be sure. Pretty logical to me to do.

Just don't get it on your hands and then put them in your mouth or in your eye. It will eat plastic too so don't put it in a plastic container. I just use 2 coffee cups or saucers.

Just leave it in over night. I would guess you should see some stuff floating around by now if it is working or the acetone should atleast look dirty, you can always swap it out with some clean acetone if you feel it needs done. Like I said in an earlier post if this don't work you might need something stronger like paint or laquer thinner and that stuff is really strong so be very careful if you do use it, I would leave the cup outdoors somewhere if you can so you don't fill your house with the fumes.

Kris

nothing yet. I am going to replace the Acetone in the morning. Disappointed. Any other suggestions.

About some of the solvents that have been suggested...

Based, not on any kind of chemical knowledge at all, but rather on the use of these solvents in painting and sign work, here's my take on them:

First, isopropyl alcohol, different from the others (and different than denatured alcohol) - in stripping plastic sign faces to be salvaged and repainted, it was the go-to product. Least likely to hurt acrylic plastic, and leaves no residue. It might be nearly as good as acetone for removing PVC green slime from coins, and safe on your hands. At 35% strength, it is rubbing alcohol. It has that familiar hospital smell, and if you got your flu shot, chances are you were swabbed with it.

OK, the others. As a painter, here's how I would rate them as far as how "hot" they are, weakest first:

Mineral Spirits

Naphtha

(probably Xylol and Xylene here)

Lacquer Thinner

Acetone

There a lot of reasons to consider acetone as the hottest bad boy in the bunch. First, warnings on its MSDS sheet; lacquer thinner, on the other hand, is not even considered a Hazardous Product except for fire danger. Acetone is also the quickest to evaporate, as some of you have quite likely discovered. It also passes very easily right through your skin. Don't get me wrong, I use it to clean coins, because it works. And I do sometimes get it on my hands. I figure with 40 years of exposure, well... I'm probably already just a few whiffs away from being a rutabaga.

Except for isopropyl alcohol, the others in the list are "cleaner" in descending order. So the two, isopropyl alcohol and acetone, leave the least amount of oily residue behind.

Also, in the same order, they do more damage to acrylic plastic. Mineral spirits doesn't do much harm, but when you get to acetone - well, put bits of acrylic plastic in acetone, cover the container, and come back to find home-made plastic cement, the kind we would buy in tubes at hobby shops years ago to glue plastic models together.

If acetone won't clean that dollar, my only other suggestion would be oven cleaner. Seriously. Think about it. Formulated to remove stubborn baked on crud without harming the oven.

-Duncan

I am out of town at the moment but as far as the cleaning, no change at all using the Acetone. I left it in the for 3 solid days and nothing. I will try again when I get home next week. I will post pictures as well.