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Acetone Cleaning Silver Coins

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Pillar of the Community
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 Posted 07/26/2012  11:25 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add wrestling_135 to your friends list
This says 100% acetone... but it also says nail polish remover on it. Would this be damaging or would this be fine to use?
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Onyx-Prof...-oz/11047134

I would be cleaning 90%, 40% and clad halves.
Can I also clean copper pennies or not?

Thanks!
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 Posted 07/27/2012  08:24 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Conder101 to your friends list
It appears to be acetone, but is probably more expensive than the 100% acetone you can buy in their paint department.
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 Posted 07/27/2012  09:41 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add wrestling_135 to your friends list
Great thanks!
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 Posted 07/27/2012  10:56 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BadThad to your friends list

Quote:
This says 100% acetone... but it also says nail polish remover on it. Would this be damaging or would this be fine to use?
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Onyx-Prof...-oz/11047134


I would not use anything that is labeled "nail polish remover". I don't care what the label says about 100% acetone, I've seen those labels lie. These usually traces of odorants, colorants or ethyl acetate, for example. Someone once posted a "100%" product here but when I dug down into it there were other ingredients. Even 0.1% contamination of acetone could produce adverse effects on a coin.

Try a local hardware store, ask for acetone and they should have the real stuff.
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 Posted 07/27/2012  12:36 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add biokemist6 to your friends list

Quote:
Ingredients-

Acetone, Denatonium Benzoate.

It contains a denaturing agent, certainly a small quantity but enough to consider the acetone as impure for conservation usage.
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 Posted 07/27/2012  1:46 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add kookoox10 to your friends list
And in case anyone is curious, an acetone bath works wonders for light PVC film.
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 Posted 07/27/2012  4:37 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add wrestling_135 to your friends list
Thanks everyone. Kookoox... could you (or anyone else) post what PVC film damage would look like? Thanks!
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 Posted 07/27/2012  5:51 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add peter1234 to your friends list
I bought some 100% stuff off ebay and it does remove crud on cooper,bronze and silver.After immersing in acetone rinse with distilled water.Just be very gentle.
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 Posted 07/27/2012  6:31 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add SsuperDdave to your friends list

Quote:
Thanks everyone. Kookoox... could you (or anyone else) post what PVC film damage would look like? Thanks!


It can show up in two ways. As a milky sort of haze - similar to what we see on ASE's or other silver which has had a bad Mint wash - or as greenish spots. Here's a particularly nasty incidence from one of my Morgans, before and after acetone:

Acetone-Cleaning-Silver-Coins

Acetone-Cleaning-Silver-Coins

As you can see, there's still evidence of what was there, but it's not visible without magnification. And that's an extreme, after the PVC has had long enough to work to actually affect the metal.

If it's silver, and there's any doubt in your mind, get it into acetone. That won't remove the Mint wash problem I mentioned above - only a grinder will do that - but acetone can't hurt silver so better safe than sorry. Just be aware that whatever the acetone removes might expose a surface of different quality than the areas not covered by stuff - much of what acetone removes keeps the underlying surface from toning and if toning is present, it'll be obvious that you used something on the coin.

In other words, every single instance is a case-by-case decision whether or not to act.
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 Posted 07/28/2012  12:30 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add smokeriderdon to your friends list
It is also great for removing adhesives and other crud like that...

Following is a 38D Walker I picked up on ebay for well below value due to green stuff on it. On the left is what it looked like as sold. The green splotches were some kind of goop. Not sure exactly what. About 8 minutes work with qtips and acetone and the same coin on the right. Acetone can be marvelous stuff.

Acetone-Cleaning-Silver-Coins
Edited by smokeriderdon
07/28/2012 12:31 am
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 Posted 07/28/2012  11:58 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add just carl to your friends list

Quote:
This says 100% acetone... but it also says nail polish remover on it. Would this be damaging or would this be fine to use?

More than likely it CONTAINS 100% Acetone. You simply take anything and add 100% Acetone to it and Presto, you have nail polish remover. Nail polish removers normally contain other ingrediants to harden nail, smell nice, etc. Pure Aceone would not be nice on womens nails.
A problem with the original post would be just how many coins are being planned on cleaning or dipping in Acetone. If you start with a few and continue adding more coins to the same Acetone, you're placing your later coins in a contaminated solution. The more dirty coins you place in the same Acetone, the more garbage the Acetone now contains. When removing those later dipped coins and allowing them to let the Acetone evaporate, you leave a layer of STUFF on those coins. Might end up with a lot worse looking coins.
Now you state you already did about 50 coins. Hopefully you changed the Acetone frequently.
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 Posted 07/28/2012  3:20 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add samuel tan to your friends list
I forgot that I started this topic last year. I remember I washed many of my coins with Acetone to remove some dirt and most of all the smell. I remember it was kind of smelly, not bad or stink, just unpleasant. I hoard them in a box and made me hesitate to touch them. They look like it was in rolls that disintegrate over the years. The coins in outer side were full with corrosion but the middle (majority) are "protected" in AU conditions, just the edges of the coins are green or brown. In the beginning, I pour a small amount of Acetone in a small cup and soaked few coins at a time. It went very well, remove some green layers and the smell. The Acetone evaporates very fast and smells very strong, in small amount like that won't overwhelm me. I notice after few coins, it left a layer of residue in the (dry) cup. Later, I am using a glass jar with lid to wash the coins. It reduces the evaporation, less smell and saved the Acetone that way. I use small amount of Acetone at a time and wipe the residue after few coins. Few weeks ago, I started another topic with title Verdi Care. My intention is to learn how to salvage and preserve the rest of my coins that has bad appearance, the coins at the end of rolls. First I thought it has corrosion, but at the end I realized it didn't eat the surface of the coins. Somebody in other forum told me it may be Copper corrosion won't affect Silver. I think, Acetone breaks non water soluble layer and hot water with liquid soap soften the stuff. I have to brushed with old tooth brush and detail it with wooden tooth picks. I am glad I did, I removed most of the bad stuff, left minor spots and patina on good coins. Thank you for every body's thoughts and supports. See my other tread in this forum.
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 Posted 07/29/2012  11:43 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add just carl to your friends list

Quote:
Many of them just pour them in their septic tanks.

Is it just me or do others not want to dig in a septic tank for coins? They sure would have to be worth a lot of money to that.
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 Posted 07/29/2012  5:51 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Captain Morgan to your friends list
I have used acetone to remove both pvc and tape deposits.
If you just let them soak, I don't think it will hurt a thing.
But it will make your coins look better.
I dip silver coins that I keep for my Albums if they need it.
I would much rather have a clean older 90% silver coin that one that has turned Black or just dark.
Valued Member
United States
322 Posts
 Posted 07/31/2012  2:16 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add samuel tan to your friends list
Well Carl, you did reply your questions yourself very well.
We are actually merchants, we do not dig the septic tanks our self. Somebody else did, and then they must wash them first before they sold to us. After the years, the becomes fertilizer. We didn't even watch them digging, that was the story what happening. It does happen all the times, most of the times they keep it quiet some time they can't. Like our neighbor demolished their old house to be rebuild. The workers hit a wall and coins pouring out, mobs came to pick them up. You never really know where the coins were before you have them. That is what makes it interesting.

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