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Valued Member
United States
322 Posts |
I am going to "clean" my old dirty silver coins with Acetone.
I would like to know if this consider as degrading or cleaned, since I only removing the dirt. Any body can advise me regarding the long term effect. After I "clean" it, I am going to keep them in capsule for very long time. Any advise will be appreciated and considered.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19948 Posts |
Acetone is a conservation solvent and not considered a cleaner. Soaking or rinsing with acetone is fine for coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
809 Posts |
Never clean coins.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
As BadThad said, that is not cleaning. Acetone does not really clean metal, it just takes of some surface STUFF.
Cleaning is when people use harsh materials to actually clean a coin. Some actually use acids, jewlery claeners, brushes, Tomato juises and I knew someone that used Lava Soap.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1388 Posts |
As long as you don't scrub it with a brush or anything harsh after an acetone soaking, it isn't considered "cleaning"... It's just a matter of preserving a countries history...  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
759 Posts |
Yes, cleaning is not cleaning if you clean with a cleaner called acetone to remove dirt, which is by definition, cleaning, but would not result in cleaned coins, except for the fact they would be more clean than before the non-cleaning.
Got it?
In other words, forget Webster. If you do go that route, follow the processes outlined here (search "acetone" for many posts), and start with low value coins.
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Valued Member
 United States
322 Posts |
Hi Guys,
Thank you very much for the explanation.
Now I know the definition of "Cleaning", as long I didn't attack the metal, just the dirt is OK.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
594 Posts |
In conservation, one removes dirt and goo. And in cleaning, one removes dirt and goo and tarnish.
Edited by KenRingold
04/11/2011 02:04 am
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Valued Member
United States
322 Posts |
Very well said, thanks KenRingold.
Tarnish is the oxidation or also called Patina.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1348 Posts |
I have used Acetone before and it doesn't hurt the coin at all
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Valued Member
United States
287 Posts |
I just used acetone to remove fingerprints from a gold proof, and some heavy glue residue from some old Mexican silver....seemed to work great in both cases & really improved the looks IMO
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Keep this in mind: It's only "not" cleaning because after you do it, nobody can tell it was treated. If whatever you remove from the coin doesn't cover the whole surface and has been there for a while, the rest of the coin's surface has likely aged differently. After the acetone, the stuff you've removed will leave surfaces which appear "cleaner" than the rest.
And it'll "look" cleaned, so it will have been cleaned.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1547 Posts |
Samuel, acetone has been observed to subtly "dull-down" toning, some, too, even to the point of, in some cases, actually removing it. I had the latter happen to me on an old two-shilling piece with a lovely spot of rainbow toning right in the center on the reverse. Just a half-minute soak followed by an air-dry completely wiped that out.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Quote:
Samuel, acetone has been observed to subtly "dull-down" toning, some, too, even to the point of, in some cases, actually removing it. I've never heard anything like that before. Acetone is chemically incapable of reacting with silver. With that said, many commercially-available products containing acetone also have other compounds in them which *can* affect silver; one must use pure acetone as opposed to nail polish remover or the like. |
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Valued Member
United States
322 Posts |
I did probably 50 of them, didn't do anything bad. Just clean and smell better.
None of them has toning, just dirty. I can smell in a distance. I don't know where they have been, but I got them from Indonesia about 40 to 50 years ago when my dad was in business. Never been washed. At the beginning of WWII, the Japanese came to Indonesia and they confiscate everything metal especially precious metal. They even known of robbing the (metal) fence. Indonesian businessman choose to bury their "saving" in the yard. Many of them just pour them in their septic tanks. Many got killed and some forgot where they were buried. Over the years, people found them and sold without washing. Now you know why I really want to wash them.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
If they had been "buried" in a septic tank I would expect them to be heavily toned from all the sulfur compounds in the waste materials.
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Replies: 33 / Views: 27,045 |
Posted 04/10/2011 5:43 pm
