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 Replies: 17 / Views: 4,059 |
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Valued Member
United States
143 Posts |
Hey guys, I was going through my sister's coins for her, and found several silver dollars (Morgan and Peace) that are wrapped individually in a Saran-type wrap. Well, several of them are tacky -- the plastic kind of sticks when you take the wrap off. While several are not tacky, they were still left with a green discoloration on parts of the coin (the kind of tarnishing you see on bronze), while others are actually a bit tacky. I'm worried that the tacky coins can't be stored in the new cardboard/plastic sleeves that I bought, as I don't want the coin sticking to the new plastic. What do we do? Acetone? Fortunately, many of the coins aren't tacky, so I'm going to leave them as is. But for the ones that are tacky, I'd appreciate advice. (We could leave them to air dry for a few days, but I don't know if the tackiness is actually oily residue from the plastic that won't dry.) Thanks. Here's a particularly bad Peace dollar:  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
604 Posts |
Try soaking the worst one in acetone. If that helps then I would use acetone on ALL of them reguardless of how it looks or feels.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1391 Posts |
Ewwww, that is nasty. Drop that coin in some acetone and let it soak for a while (read safety about first risk etc.), gently swirling the acetone every once in a while, should come up. Don't scrub the coins either. (I always put a cloth at the bottom of the glass to not scratch the coin). If I were you I would put them all in the acetone, just incase the others are on their way to looking like this. They were in the same environment and packaging after all.
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Acetone. Quick. All of them - even the ones which don't show visible damage yet are infected. That "Saran Wrap" was probably soft enough to do what it does because of the plasticizers we so hate, and these coins probably have a big problem which needs immediate (within the next few days) attention.
This one will be a tough job because of the quantity of coins and degree of infection. It's possible that this was caused by something that got inadvertently wrapped in with the coins and the wrap was benign, but we have to proceed in worst-case scenario mode and acetone will do no harm.
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Valued Member
 United States
143 Posts |
Excellent point about the rest of the coins, I have no idea if they have residue that will continue to do this. Yeah, suddenly my family is thinking I'm less of a geek than they thought two days ago when I bought the cardboard/plastic sleeves for the coins :) The last time I used acetone was in chemistry class in 1981 LOL Do you buy it at the pharmacy, or at the hardware store? How long to let it soak -- hours? I'll google this forum a bit more to see what else folks suggest, safety-wise, for acetone.
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Valued Member
United States
143 Posts |
I found the local hardware store carries acetone, and it's not too much for a quart. Do you recommend I let them sit several hours, or several days? I assume that halfway through I flip the coins over (gingerly).
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Rest in Peace
United States
7075 Posts |
Buy the acetone at the hardware store.
Do the coins one at a time for about 20 minutes. Then rinse that coin in CLEAN acetone in a clean glass. Repeat as necessary. Wash the jars or glasses to remove residue and dry thoroughly before reusing for the next coin.
You're going to be busy all day.
If you're going to the hardware store to get acetone, you might want to pick up a box of jelly jars (food canning section) just to have a whole bunch of glasses to use for this purpose. You won't need the jar tops, just the little glass jars.
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Valued Member
United States
143 Posts |
What do you use to handle the coins once they're in the acetone, to remove them once they've soaked? So as not to scratch them, but also not to touch the acetone?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
506 Posts |
Get some disposable nitrile gloves. You can get like a box of 100 for around $8-9 at Walgreens or CVS |
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Valued Member
United States
167 Posts |
Time to test out your ability with chopsticks, lol jk. Wooden tongs work.
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Valued Member
United States
143 Posts |
Got the gloves, and have the chopsticks on deck ;-) trying it now.
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Valued Member
United States
143 Posts |
They're definitely better, the gunk seems to be off. But some of the worst coins still have green smears where the gunk was. And the gunk affected the toning, so now you see silver streaks on the coins (and fingerprints). But the coins were worthless with plastic slime all over them anyway, so what do you do.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8517 Posts |
Might be a good time to practice dipping a coin. I imagine they're junk silver now so would be fun to experiment.
Oregon coin geek.....*** GO BEAVS ! ! ! ***
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4692 Posts |
Try rubbing the trouble areas with a Q-tip while in the acetone wash.
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Valued Member
United States
143 Posts |
I hadn't tried that, Jim, as others said not to really touch the coin other than gently sloshing the bath.
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Moderator
Australia
16837 Posts |
The "green goo" from PVC and other highly plasticized plastics is acidic. The green colour comes from copper and nickel in the coins reacting with the acid. So, just as if you'd put drops of concentrated acid directly on your coins, the surfaces underneath the green goo are likely to be permanently etched. There's nothing much you can do about that, except use the coin as a pocket piece.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Replies: 17 / Views: 4,059 |
Posted 01/19/2015 12:52 pm
