1854 Large Cent

Did you snag it? Not bad at the price. I think this one was lacquered; especially on the obverse, the stuff built up strikes me as lacquer since they'd usually glue it obverse-out if that was going to happen. So, yeah, this one looks otherwise of clean appearance and I'd definitely be planning on an acetone bath once it's in-hand. Given that the lacquer is probably near-contemporary, I'd be figuring on needing a little more effort - multiple baths and long soaks - but I'd be confident of getting it all in the end.

This is one I might actually consider using a Q-tip on - as long as the coin was suspended in acetone at the time - even though I rarely recommend that approach because of the sensitivity of highly-lustrous coinage to the slightest disturbance. But this coin is going to have a fairly thick covering of stuff acetone can remove, and it will be softening it from the outside-in. "Picking" at it with something sharp therefore won't help much, but Q-tips might save you some time and the surfaces of this coin won't be disturbed by them.

If you haven't familiarized yourself with the safe usage of acetone yet, do a Search of the Forum for the numerous threads in which we discuss it.

I would love to see the results and the exact procedure you follow.

With the understanding that I'm probably a lot more picky about procedure than I really need to be, here's how I'd do it:

The first soak would be an overnight, in a shotglass/jigger-sized glass with a glass cover to prevent evaporation. Let the acetone work on the stuff for a while. Out of that first glass, swished in a second glass for a fairly quick rinse (I'd "swish" for 15-20 seconds), and then into a second, rather larger glass of acetone to give me room to play with the Q-tip. Depending on the result I got at that point, either continue working with the Q-tip for a while or (if I didn't get much), into another long-term soak. Either way, there'd be a second overnight soak starting at whatever point the Q-tip stopped providing results, followed by a repeat of the previous day's activity.

My guess is that would be enough to remove pretty much all of the offending stuff, or at least soften it so that one last cycle would finish the job.

For me, the safety aspect of the process is helped by a convenient place to put the soak glass in the bathroom, on the sill of an open window with the door closed. That allows any fumes an immediate escape and keeps it away from any possible source of ignition.