Acetone Baths questions
davids5104
Posts: 805 ✭✭✭✭
A few questions about this....
- How long do you perform the task?
- After you pull the coin out of the acetone, how long do you wait until you place in a plastic flip for submission
- do you place multiple coins in your acetone at same time vs single?
- Do you mix copper and silver coinage?
- I use a glass pyrex bowl and home depot acetone....am I an idiot, or the best ever or neither.....(looking for, is there a better way to do it?)
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Acetone treatment is not a rocket science proposition. There are different ways to skin the cat, my favorite:
I use soap (dish detergent and water) first.
Tamp with high nap white cotton towel
Acetone either in a small but shallow bowl/cup of either glass or high quality ceramic
Either soak coin or use corner of similar towel to tamp - not rub - surface of coin
One by one proposition as far as coins, don't batch them if you don't want to risk contact
Repeat soap and water treatment
Rinse liberally with water (can be distilled but IMO does not have to be)
Tamp dry with same type of towel
Let dry for couple hours
May place in plastic flip
Well, just Love coins, period.
You can soak a coin for a few minutes or a week. A week would obviously loosen more undesired matter. Just ensure the acetone doesn't evaporate and you cannot use plastic as Acetone eats plastic.
I rinse in warm water for a minute or so. That too removes debris. I then place the coin on a quality paper napkin with no pattern or lint. Press, flip press in a new area then let it air dry for 10 minutes. NO RUBBING OF ANY KIND!!!
Yes, I have soaked several at once. Avoid contact. I extract by pouring off the Acetone until I can tilt the dish to retrieve them for rinsing one at a time.
I've never mixed copper and silver. Dunno......
I use a dish and put another as a lid but any non-plastic vessel should work fine.
For single coins I use a shot glass or an 8 oz 7up glass with less than an ounce of Acetone as it's not great for the environment.
Since acetone dries without leaving a residue it could be used alone; I agree with the small ceramic bowl. A paper towel could be used to squeeze out excess and hasten the dry though acetone and products like "Conserv" are accelerents, so will dry quickly. I don't understand the concerns about always dumping out fluid even when little in terms of surface material was removed. The particulate tends to fall to the bottom and the effect of the solution is rarely affected by one or two uses.
I use small shallow glass jars with screw caps. Also wood handled cotton swabs to roll off dirt (if uncirculated) and PVC.
I have mixed copper and silver and nickel in same jar. When acetone starts turning color, time for new batch.
Acetone is flammable, evaporates easily, and has fumes that are bad, so be careful.
In my experience a few weeks in acetone is no different from a few minutes.
Hardware store acetone is just fine.
If the coin is a mess then multiple baths are warranted, so dissolved residue doesn't end up on the coin.
Acetone dries quickly. No reason to wait long.
I would not treat multiple coins at the same time. What's the hurry?
Some circulated silver or copper might benefit from Blue Ribbon or CoinCare. Acetone strips environmental contaminants which can leave coins looking dried-out.
Lance.
I use acetone when coins have PVC or other contaminants...it will remove/dissolve organic compounds. If soaking for a while, cover the container since acetone will evaporate quickly. Do not use nail polish remover as that has other compounds in it. I use an alcohol rinse after soaking and then hot, running water... just my method, and I am used to it. Cheers, RickO
Isopropyl or moonshine/everclear?
You think "nail polish" remover like this would be OK? Says 100% acetone, and that of course is the only thing listed in the ingredients
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Better off buying pure acetone. Acetone and, say, anhydrous ammonia sometimes have unlisted additives (state-by-state, sometimes federal) because they're used in methamphetamine production or a/b extractions for cleaning up heroin and cocaine.
@DCW...I have never seen that one before.... If it is indeed pure, it would be ok...though I think it may be more expensive than the hardware store acetone....just guessing there since it is appealing to the cosmetic segment of the market. Cheers, RickO
Thanks @ricko
Under $5, so I figured Id give it a shot. Cant get more pure than 100%, but I wanted to check with you guys to see if I was missing something
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
...
Definitely don't do copper with acetone
So what do you recommend for copper?
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
anhydrous ammonia is a gas..????
???
Acetone - pure acetone - should be fine on any metal including copper????
You can also buy heptane at Lowe's which will also be safe on coins
it affects the color on copper. Don't know why
"Meth cooks use anhydrous ammonia in the place of red phosphorus to extract methamphetamine from ephedrine by way of a chemical reaction when mixed with lithium (usually via battery innards)."
Manufacturers started putting additives in it, and farm grade ammonia, eight to ten years ago.
I've heard of people using acetone for extractions of various things and getting odd residues or horrible tastes, smells and colors that weren't initially present or listed on the product label.
Acetone will not affect copper, however, I have heard of it causing color change when it attacks some residues on copper.... I have no idea what the residues are that cause such an effect. I put a new copper cent in acetone early this week...left it there for three hours...no change. I did this because I keep seeing these posts about acetone and copper. Acetone is an organic solvent, it will not attack metal. Cheers, RickO
my experience confirms this. i have seen black dirt turn into green residue on copper. the green stuff was already there, but the acetone took the black layer off. i also think it tends to make brown copper look "dry."
I've got some "dirty" seated halves vf20-xf45 with a nice old silver look to them. I had them laid out last night ready to give them a hot water bath. After examining them, I realized the best they'd ever look is how they do now - like old silver.