I'm Gonna Clean A Coin

Where exactly can I get some acetone and what other coin-cleaning products are out there?

Andrew

You can also get 100% pure acetone at beauty supply stores, it's used to dissolve artificial fingernails. Now that you know that what are you going to do?

I've used acetone on some crusty copper cents, and exactly nothing happened. Still spotty, still crusty, still only worth face value! No harm, no foul I guess...

Rachel

oh! also, what could I use to get ink off of an old metal printing block? Nail polish remover?

quote:

---

Originally posted by pattiewhack

oh! also, what could I use to get ink off of an old metal printing block? Nail polish remover?

---

What kind of printing block is this? Is it art work? Have you made any prints off it yet? I too have a few old steel blocks. I don't know how I should clean them but I've made prints off them. I cut wood and linolium to make artwork and print them on rice paper. So this is an interest of mine. So I am curious. [umm

Thanks for the ideas.

A guy at work told me acetone wouldn't work on oxidation too, he also recommended a jewelry cleaner and he's the one who is into silver dollars so I'm hoping he knows what hes talking about. He said to just dip it really quickly and then wash it off with distilled water and it should look okay. He stressed that the dipping should be done extremely quickly or it would leave that nasty overdipped look you see on so many coins. He's gonna bring in some of whatever he uses and show me how to do this tomorrow.

If ya see me peddling a couple of overdipped eagles for bullion value in the trading section you'll know I messed up. heheheh

I use Lemon juice on ancient silver coins...and it works great. I've used it mainly on silver coins that have developped black patina over time....and the juice takes that patina away. But I've never tried it on modern silver. I don't think it's much different .

Regards,
Patrick

Acetone is overrated. It can only handle organic material, not toning.

Okay, here's an update on how it went for anyone interested.

The guy from work brought his jewelry cleaner and he had some kind of 1968 silver olympic coin from Mexico, nice looking coin but it was kinda nasty. He showed how he dipped the coin for, maybe, 2 seconds and then fished it out and washed it off. He had some small foreign thing that was silver also (he said it was junk silver anyway so he didn't mind overdipping it) and he dropped it in and let it set for about 5 or 6 seconds and when he got it out it had that familiar cleaned look you see on some coins, no luster at all.

We got the eagles out and since the toning was just at the edges we just dipped that part in all the way around, probably not even for the full 2 seconds, and the toning was gone. They got a quick wash with distilled water and then patted dry and left out to air dry further just in case. I gotta say it was pretty sweet the way it took that toning off, there isn't any sign at all where the dip was on the coin, no loss of luster at all. I popped them back in the air tites later and you can't tell there was any difference between those and any of the others. I'm hoping there won't be any long term effects, can't really say yet, but the silver dollar guy says that he hasn't had any troubles so far so I'm hopefull.

I gotta throw in a disclaimer that I wouldn't want anyone to try this on anything they value without a bit of practice on some old junk silver. This is some touchy stuff, the difference between taking off the toning on those eagles and stripping the luster off that little foreign thingie and reducing it to something people laugh about when they see it on ebay was very slight, maybe 3 seconds or so. I wouldn't have even tried it without and old hand showing me how it was done and unfortunately not everyone has one of those lying around so even though it worked out well for me be careful if you try this.

Also, just as an experiment, we threw an old dateless buffalo in that stuff and it didn't come out well at all. It was one of those dark looking things you see once in a while and we tried his usual process of quick dipping and rinse and it didn't make much difference so we left it in longer, and then longer, he even rubbed it with his fingers and it came out a mess, it was still dirty in spots and then white in other areas so don't try it with nickels at all.

Thanks again for everyone with all the ideas.