100% Pure acetone nail polish remover after 5-6 years results....
Early_Milled_Latin_America
Posts: 6,468 ✭✭✭✭✭
90% of my coins I used this type of acetone in the first few years since that I figured it was OK.
Well turns out I was right not a single coin has any issues after more than half a decade. 
2
Comments
The coins look exactly the same as the day I purchased them. Every one of them (almost 75 coins total).
I state this because I know there is a fear when using acetone and the type of acetone. Hardware store vs the rest.
There are not finger prints or anything else on any of the coins.
Ingredients:
Acetone, Denatonium Benzoate.
What do the other 10% look like?
peacockcoins
Ingredients:
Acetone, Denatonium Benzoate.> @braddick said:
Hardware acetone for those 10% all OK as well.
Got any before/after pics by chance 🙂
No just based on the fact I look my coins over every few months and memory. Once per year I look them over with my jewellers lens and that is what I have done this week. I have images (for most of my coins but not all) from the auction houses I saved and compare them to that.
I need to buy a microscope that I can upload images to my PC.
Toning never changed on any of them or anything else. All perfect and OK.
The Denatonium Benzoate is Bitrex, a very very bitter substance designed to keep young kids from accidently poisoning themselves. So at least little kids won’t want to swallow your coins. I remember we used to add it to the gelatin shell when we made bath oil bead Softgel capsules at one of the companies I worked at. We had a jar of Bitrex powder in the lab and if you just opened the bottle you could instantly taste it just from microscopic dust coming out, that’s how potent it is. I talked one guy into tasting the powder one time, he wasn’t right the rest of the day and couldn’t get rid of the bitter taste no matter what he tried.
Mr_Spud
Do they put that ingredient in all types of acetone? Is it OK for silver coins?
No, just nail polish remover most likely. To prevent kids from drinking mom’s nail polish remover. Some nail polish remover also has a bit of conditioner oil in them to prevent drying out the users skin. The ones with the conditioner oil in them would be the worst for coins because they can end up leaving a hazy residue on them. I don’t think the Bitrex is good for coins, but most likely the amount present isn’t large enough to leave a visible residue. The best test for any type of acetone is to put some on a clean mirror and let it dry. If it leaves a visible residue or haziness then don’t use it on your coins.
Mr_Spud
Mr_Spud
I use this brand as well,,,, I rinse all my raw coins also and haven't had any problems.
I never change brands I always use this one or hardware store acetone. Sometimes I just can't buy the one in the hardware store since I do not own a car and it is far away from my home vs the pharmacy 10 minute walk.
Is it best to just let a coin dry after the acetone bath or rinse with water? I only have tap water.
Rinse with fresh pure acetone.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
If you're going to rinse with water which i assume is appropriate, only use distilled water.
I'm not sure i understand how this nail polish remover can be 100% pure Acetone if it contains:
Are they saying that the Acetone in it is 100% pure, along with the other ingredient?
In any case, if it were me I wouldn't be cutting corners and hoping for the best.
Yes, 'pure acetone' and denatonium benzoate are a contradiction. Maybe it is 99.9% pure acetone and they figure that rounds to 100% so they can claim that?
I would not want a residue of denatonium benzoate on my coins, I would personally consider this acetone as not acceptable. The saving grace is that you have only a tiny amount, as the bitterant is used in only very small amounts since it is so strong.
For rinsing, either pure acetone (which this is NOT) or distilled water (not tap water).
I would imagine after 6 years I would have seen the damage if any by the denatonium benzoate. And I see none at all. But I get your point.
Are you sure the acetone at a hardware store is truly 100% ''pure''?
How many years have you used this acetone?
Viewed this way there is no pure 100% acetone in my area for sale.
AI Answer on hardware store acetone purity:
No, acetone sold in hardware stores is generally not 100% pure. While some acetone may be labelled as 100%, most salon-grade acetone is actually in the range of 97-99% purity, and hardware store acetone may contain more impurities. These impurities can include water and oily residues, which can affect the acetone's performance.
It is true that hardware store acetone is usually more contaminated than the acetone that is purchased in a pharmacy or beauty supply. Nail professionals should use at least 99% acetone, but some companies sell poor grade acetone that is mislabeled as 100% acetone, when it is not.
I will just keep using what I use since I have yet to encounter any problems. All my coins are silver with minimal copper in them.
I soak and rinse all my raw coins especially before grading and have done so for about 12 years.
12 years using the same acetone I use is a great indicator that this acetone is OK to use (Onyx like the one I displayed).
I do a double acetone dip. I let soak in a bowl for about 30 min. Then I transfer the coins to a 2nd bowl of fresh clean acetone. I let them sit another 20 -30 min,,,,,, depends on what I am doing. Then I lay the coins out on a clean towel and pat them dry. Then I hit them with hot air off a hair dryer, both sides of the coin to finish my process. I do sometimes 8 - 10 coins at a time in the bowl. I use the 1st bowl for several processes and when I feel it needs changed I make the 2nd bowl the 1st bowl and put fresh clean acetone in the 2nd bowl.
Yes, Grandam, the dry pat and/or dryer is important in humid areas like where I live because the rapid evaporation of acetone cools the coin below the dew point and water will condense on the coin otherwise. 👍
It's probably 99.999%. Bitrex is used in ppm amounts
Yes, before I started the drying process I would sometimes get "water spots" on the coins if I let them air dry.
Be careful though,,,,,, acetone is flammable, don't be throwing any sparks off your hair dryer.
Apparently it depends on your jurisdiction. Some states (specifically: Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin) mandate that certain sweet-tasting toxic liquids sold to the public must contain denatonium. Obviously, a chemical manufacturer isn't going to really want to make two different kinds of acetone ("one for those states" and "one for everywhere else"), just in case they accidentally ship the wrong kind to Oregon, so they put denatonium in everybody's acetone, just in case. This would apply both to hardware-store-acetone and to nail-polish-remover-acetone. But if a chemical company only sells their products in places far away from those states and has no plans to expand there, they might not choose to add any denatonium.
I don't really know why they see the need to add denatonium to acetone to make it taste bad, since I reckon acetone tastes pretty awful just by itself; it certainly smells inedible. But I'm just a scientist who handles acetone in the lab quite a lot, not a lawmaker.
The main reason we usually say "for coins you should use pure acetone from a hardware store, not nail polish remover acetone" is that nail polish remover almost always has other stuff - besides denatonium - added to it, to make it smell prettier, which the hardware store acetone won't have. It's those essential oils that are likely to cause toning on a coin in the medium to long term, as they will almost always have sulfur in them. You got lucky with your choice of acetone, since it doesn't seem to have those fragrances present.
The concentration of denatonium is typically around 5 to 10 ppm, so we're talking 0.001% or so; rounding to the nearest 0.1% would certainly allow them to legally round up to "100% acetone" in the advertising blurb. There'll be more water present in your "100% acetone" (around 0.05%) than denatonium, since removing absolutely all of the water from acetone is both futile and hideously expensive. Denatonium is a solid at room temperature; when the acetone evaporates away, a tiny tiny amount of denatonium will remain on the coin. You won't see it, and it won't react in any way with the coin. I'm pretty sure not even the GC detectors ("sniffers") they use in the TPG labs to detect coin doctoring could detect denatonium in the tiny quantities we're talking about.
But the denatonium will still be there, and you would probably be able to taste it if you put one of those acetone-rinsed coins in your mouth. Denatonium was specifically designed to taste terrible, even at concentrations where it's barely present. I wouldn't recommend conducting such an experiment yourself, but if you were to take two identical normal coins, give one the denatonium-acetone treatment and keep the other one untreated, then put both of them in your mouth... the acetoned coin would definitely taste worse.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
You could treat two coins like that, then place each into a separate shot glass filled with some vodka, then taste the two vodka shots (without the coin), and that experiment might not be so bad.
When dealing with acetone, the glass or mirror test has been discussed many times in several past threads on this subject. This test is quick and easy to perform and it tells you everything you need to know about the practical safety of your acetone. Put a drop of the acetone that you are considering using for your coins on a clean mirror or a clean piece of glass and then examine the surface of the mirror or glass after the acetone has evaporated. If there is no residue left behind, the acetone should be safe to use on your coins for all practical purposes.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire