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 Replies: 14 / Views: 5,617 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
what do you do with laquered copper coins? something safe?to conserve them? Thanks......
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3076 Posts |
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Moderator
 Australia
16817 Posts |
You have two options.
1. Leave it there. It's presumably done a reasonably good job at preserving the coin up until now, and will presumably continue to do so if it's left alone. Of course, lacquered coins are very much out of fashion these days; they don't "look natural" as far as a copper coin sitting in your collection is concerned, especially if you're storing it side by side with un-lacquered coins. So, you may want to...
2. Remove it. Acetone should remove most kinds of lacquer or varnish without harming the underlying coin. You might want to give it several successive dips in fresh acetone, to make sure it's all been removed. If acetone is unavailable, the alcohols (eg. methanol, ethanol, isopropanol) might work just as well.
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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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
thanks Sap, I do have acetone handy, as I work with paint, the coins are nice but I wondered if I used acetone will it effect the coins, they look pretty good, lots of mint luster frozen in time....I didn't want to chance changing that, I know it doesn't effect silver..never tried it on copper coins......I'll try one and take some pictures of the process......Thanks
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Quote:
thanks Sap, I do have acetone handy, as I work with paint, the coins are nice but I wondered if I used acetone will it effect the coins, they look pretty good, lots of mint luster frozen in time....I didn't want to chance changing that, I know it doesn't effect silver..never tried it on copper coins......I'll try one and take some pictures of the process......Thanks
Since you work with paint you should well know how to use Acetone or I'd suggest using Search on this forum for all the info on how to use Acetone on coins. Acetone will not effect any coins at all. Many people have a problem not understanding that the Acetone will dissolve such things as tape, glues, varnishes, etc. Then they remove the coins from the Acetone and allow them to just dry. As the Acetone evaporates, it leaves the residue of what was dissolved right back on the coin. This is why most threads on the usage of Acetone explain to use a disstilled water rince after. Laquer thinners will work also but should really use Acetone after to remove any contaminates left from the Laquer Thinner. Also, some Laquer Thinners have been known to discolor Copper coins. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19942 Posts |
Laquer can be very difficult to remove. Personally, I've never heard of it being removed with acetone. In fact, I've read an experiment where it was only removed with DMSO. I always recommend following the polarity ladder first before progresing to stronger solvents:
1) water
2) acetone
3) xylene
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
Hi all, I finally got round to taking the laquer off with acetone, takes about 10 seconds and a short second time around just to be sure, heres the first one a 1921 canadian pennie,,,I forgot to take befor pictures....   now I took some before and after pictures, of a 1935 canadian penny before:::   and now the finished unlaquered coin   what do you all think? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
781 Posts |
for me, it was hard to tell since the "before" is in a 2x2, with a mylar layer. lacquer or no lacquer, wouldn't it look the same because of the mylar film? I think a "before" out of the 2x2 would have been more useful, IMHO. but the "afters" look great.
Edited by jedichef
04/09/2010 02:36 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
I did another one post in a few minutes/without the 2X2
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19942 Posts |
Good job! I think it was likely nail polish and not laquer.
Lincoln Cent Lover!VERDI-CARE™ INVENTOR https://verdi.care/
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
thanks, I have a few more that I thought I would take the polish off they seem to be turning out nice. they seen to be in real nice shape.....I'll post some pictures later when I get the squared away...
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Hopefully you did rinse with distilled water after the Acetone. Although many people claim Acetone will not effect Copper coins and I USED to be one of those. Not long ago I did some dipping on coins that had all sorts of just stuff on them so not much to loose. Two of the coins for some unknown reason turned RED after a while. Not the Red used to discribe new Copper coins but a real, real RED. Several Copper coins were in the same Acetone and in the same jar at the same time. The ones that turned RED were a large cent and an Indian Head cent. The reddening stopped after placing in a 2x2 though. |
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Replies: 14 / Views: 5,617 |
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Posted 04/04/2010 12:06 am
