Help With Canada Nickels Stored In PVC

Thanks Ugly, but it figures, I have a few really nice looking chromium ones in the page. Back then I put my best ones in the "best" holders I could get for them.

I am in complete agreement with Ugly's recommendations. Test your acetone by evaporating a little bit in a clear glass dish. If no residue is left, it is pure enough to use on coins. For coins already plagued by the green PVC slime, you may need to use a q-tip along with soaking to remove it all. Only touch a wet q-tip to a wet coin(no dry touching!) and just roll the tip instead of rubbing, gentle is best. Once the slime is removed, rinse the coin again in fresh acetone.

Just remember that acetone is flammable so use it in a well-ventilated area. It is not necessarily harmful to your skin but be sure to minimize contact because it will strip your skin of oils, leaving it very dry.

Geez two chemistry whizzes in one thread. I have to admit, I've been running fractional distillation stills for years, both for uhmm , lets call it sport and need. My methanol is getting pretty good too, it just took a while to get my low cost catalyst correct, I finally resorted to nickel and the contents from a few decent catalytic converters I salvaged.

At this point I don't have the equipment to separate the acetone in a pure form from the general ethanol mix but I've been able to make sure I get most of it out of the ethanol along with all the lower than ethanol boiling point by products. Vacuum for the win.

Typically I run a little store bought acetone (high grade for working with polyester resins) though the molecular sieve directly onto whatever I'm trying to remove PVC from in order to minimize any water spots. Has worked fantastic and zeolite in 3a is cheap. You can't just leave it there of course or it sucks in water from the atmosphere to get back to normal, but for the time it takes to remove crap from a coin it's fine. I just dump the leftover into the methanol barrel and redry it later before I burn it in the lawnmower or the Jeep.

Anyhow, using the sieve prevents me from worrying about rinsing later, air dry is fine. It's just the best way I've discovered to salvage uncirculated nickels from destructive storage.