Cleaning Experiments...

dakra

Since I ran out of Acetone, my wife who does nails/manicures on the side offered me a bottle of "Non-Acetone Nail Polish Remover". Believe me when I say if you have any kind of junk on your coins, this stuff will remove it....and then some.

I experimented on some dirty circulated pennies and soaked them in a straight mixture of the "non-acetone" The result was a bright orange penny, the water turned a hint of green and it might have even removed the top layer of metal from the penny. I then attempted a half water and half "non acetone" test and although it took a bit longer, it yielded the same result. I finally lowered it to 3 parts water to 1 part "non acetone", let the coin soak for a day and the result is in the attachment. I am assuming that either the "non acetone" took the luster off the penny or it was years of being circulated and years of being dirty. Although this penny did not have as many scratches, other pennies I tested, as soon as the dirt came off, the scratches that were hidden underneath the dirt showed up.

Although it was nice to see a completely dirty penny back in almost it's original state, I'm going to abandon this experiment :-)

-David

littlewicher

How long did it take in straight "non-acetone"? (Not mixed with anything.)

baccaruda

pop (or soda for you new yorkers) will do the same thing - not a single drop of mint luster left though.

dakra

The straight non-acetone took less than 5 minutes to get it partially cleaned (started changing orange but some parts remained brown, I believe in took about 10 minutes for the penny to change totally "orange".

I also placed my 1921 Morgan in the full solution (trying to lower the population) in at the same time as a penny and it seemed to pick up the dirt or copper from the penny, it looks pretty hideous right now but today I started to soak it alone in the 3:1 mixture... hoping to get the junk off of it.

Until I figure out a good ratio, I'm going to experiment with the mixture sparingly. It gets rid of PVC really well but I also think it strips off some of the metal.

-David

dakra

I heard Cola can strip the paint from a car...so why not a penny. I wonder if a bit of Turtle Wax might bring the luster back to my car...err I mean Penny.

-Dave

windwhispersintrees

Try electrolysis instead.

dakra

I was joking at first about the "turtle wax" but applied some to the penny a bit over an hour ago and here are the results. No bad...

-David

BlueCole

isn't that the smelly stuff women put on their fingernails? What does it do to them?

B.

dakra

BlueCole,
I love my wife very much but sometimes I wonder if she has been using that stuff way too long. I have a feeling it has some sort of chemical that brainwashes women into thinking they need to get a pedicure, manicure, their hair and makeup done once a month. After dipping a few coins I wondered if I should get the french tip or just have my nails done a nice shade of red. Then it suddenly occured to me that I needed to get my legs waxed... I walked out and got some fresh air and I'm no longer feeling that way.

Yes, I love my wife and that's why I'm going to confiscate this stuff from her :-)

-Dave

stujoe

Some funny stuff!

On a serious note and it probably goes without saying but...even nail polish remover containing acetone should not be used on coins...it can contain a lot of other stuff in it that can do who knows what to your coins.

laserart

I tried cleaning a nickel with my laser machine, it didn't work.

dakra

I know it's never a good idea to clean coins but experimenting on crap coins will often lead to learning about coins and figuring out what you can and cannot do with them.

Getting back to some of my experiements... I've been playing around with a 1945 P Nickle... It was dirty as heck. I soaked it in Acetone for a few days and it just wouldn't take the dirt out. I soaked it in the "non-acetone" and again, the dirt did not come out... I began to think that it was more rusted or the top layer was worn off of it... Just for kicks, I put the turtle wax on it, let it sit on it for a few hours and then wiped it off with a soft cloth... I was pretty surprised to find that the dirt/rust/whatever came right off... even though I have a well worn nickle, it is now clean! I figured I would just toss the coin out originally but now that it is looking much better, I figure it's a coin I can keep in my collection. If you have seen my previous 1921 Morgan messages, I tried the same with the morgan and it returned to a nice shade of "silver" instead of the gold toning.... although it did give better definition to some of the scratches it already had on it.

-Dave

Coulport

Just think what that stuff does to delicate female skin.

And you thought acetone was a strong oil remover.