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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,770 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1944 Posts |
i guess, like anything in life, one learns the most when we actually attempt things our self. after seeing several posts about cleaning coins with acetone, I thought I would give it a try. I found a 1973 lincoln, with crud on it. I dropped it into one of those white 2 oz. plastic cups, and filled it until the coin was covered, in acetone. well the lesson learned is do NOT use a plastic container.
after only a few seconds the acetone dissolved the plastic, and ran onto the table. fortunately the table was not valuable, and I do not know yet how effective cleaning is going to be. I suppose logic would have indicated to not use a plastic container, but if common sense was so common - it wouldn't be so valuable. lesson learned.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
Reminds of when I was a kid "helping" my mom make candles. I poured hot wax into a plastic cup and got a real mess! Quote:
well the lesson learned is do NOT use a plastic container.
Pyrex makes plastic cups safe for this use but many plastic cups are not safe. Glass is your best bet! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1450 Posts |
I got a plastic paintbrush cleaning container at Hobby Lobby and it works perfect for acetone. Look in the painting sectio. It has a snap-on lid.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7629 Posts |
And acetone is not the best thing to use. I don't know how you got that idea...except that a lot of people mistakenly use it.
Get Goo-Gone from any grocery store. Use that. Let it soak for a lengthy time (days, often).
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
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into one of those white 2 oz. plastic cups That would depend entirely on what kind of plastic the cup is actually composed of, there are seven different recycling codes for plastic and it sounds like it might have been polystyrene(#6) which will dissolve when in contact with most solvents. Polypropylene(#5) is perfectly safe to use with acetone, I have acetone squirt bottles in my lab that are #5 plastic. However, it is best to use clear glass because that allows you to perform an evaporation test to check the purity of your acetone. If a small volume of acetone is allowed to evaporate and there is no visible residue left on the glass, then it is pure enough to use on a coin. |
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Valued Member
United States
347 Posts |
want to hear another good one for cleaning? I stumbled on this one while doing an art project with one of my young daughters. It consists of a ceramic tile (heat proof for anything below) , a propane torch (one of the pencil types) and some practice. put the point of the flame on the edge of the coin (the coin should be sitting on the center of the tile) and in seconds, you will see a line that sweeps across the coin and leaves it in much cleaner condition. you can cool in water immediatly. but, for the art part, keep the flame on the coin with a slow sweeping action and you will see it start to change to some very vibrant rainbow colors! from bright green, blue,fuscia, red and more! But careful, if it gets too hot it will go to a solid pale color. A littlebit of practice and you can make cool designs with the different colors.
But anyway, the initialheat sweeping line will remove much if not all contaminants from the surface. try a couple of plane non keepers and see what you think! I guess I can do a few and show everyone what I am talking about. give me a couple of days and i'll get to it.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1944 Posts |
i got the idea right here on this forum, from reading the posts of several of the posteers. I havent tried it with any valuable coins, and am only experimenting. the idea of using acetone wouldn't have occured to me - except for here. by the way, for a minor clean off of dibris - WD40 works pretty well - also.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
Ummm, that is probably the worst idea ever for cleaning a coin  Torching a coin will damage it, plain and simple  |
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New Member
United States
21 Posts |
I've been told by a coin shop owner that acetone is safe, and won't hurt
the coin's surface.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
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Get Goo-Gone... I use regular Goo-Gone and it does work well and is cheap! |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,770 |
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Posted 01/21/2010 10:27 am
