Acetone Bath Questions

thedpro · June 19, 2005 4:29AM

What is the process of cleaning coins in acetone?

How much acetone should I use?

How many coins can I clean at once - can I put more then 1 coin in a jar at one time?

Should the jar be covered?

How often should I change the acetone?

How long should the coins soak for?

When I remove them and put them in "clean acetone" do I just dip for a few seconds, or let them soak again?

Same question as above for the distilled water.

If anyone can answer these questions, I would appreciate it. I have limited knowledge in how to clean them, but probably just under what I should know.

nwcs · June 19, 2005 4:33AM

Basically get 100% pure acetone and put it into a non-plastic non-painted dish. Most coins need only a few seconds and a swish to get everything taken care of. Rinse in a fresh bowl of acetone and let air dry.

Only as much acetone as it takes to do the job, not much. You can put in as many as you want but be aware that something taken off the surface of one might settle on another. Good to keep it few and rinse properly in fresh.

Don't use acetone near any ignition source or flame. Keep well ventilated. Covering is not necessary. Use acetone only once or twice, don't reuse for many many coins.

On the final rinse, it just needs a little swishing.

TomB · June 19, 2005 4:38AM

Acetone will really only effectively remove PVC, anything else on the coin will stay on the coin. Acetone is also incredibly flammable and highly volatile so if you use it make certain there is plenty of ventilation and absolutely no source of ignition, either spark or flame, anywhere near it. Breathing excess acetone can also give you lung, liver and kidney damage. I would suggest that if you have a problem with PVC that you use enough acetone to soak the coin for a few seconds to a few minutes and then discard the acetone and rinse with new acetone. Also, I would not use acetone over as you will now have contaminants in the acetone from the previous coin.

thedpro · June 19, 2005 2:46PM

Do I need any special gloves when using the acetone? If the acetone gets on my skin, how dangerous is that?

nwcs · June 19, 2005 10:00PM

Some people are very sensitive to acetone. Many people use latex gloves.

Shamika · June 19, 2005 11:00PM

Unless you plan on submerging your hands in acetone for a long period of time, it generally is not harmful.

Personally, I do not wear gloves when dealing with acetone in a lab setting. All I worry about is good fume hood.

19Lyds · June 20, 2005 1:37AM

<< <i>Acetone will really only effectively remove PVC, anything else on the coin will stay on the coin. >>

Acetone also removes adhesive residue quite well.

Good advice in this thread!

PerryHall · June 20, 2005 2:10AM

Doesn't acetone melt the plastic used to make slabs? Removing tape residue from coins is O.K. but I wouldn't use it to remove the sticker residue from slabs.

Steve27 · June 20, 2005 2:40AM

" Do I need any special gloves when using the acetone? If the acetone gets on my skin, how dangerous is that?"

Acetone is the major component of fingernail polish remover; don't worry about getting it on your skin.

" Doesn't acetone melt the plastic used to make slabs? Removing tape residue from coins is O.K. but I wouldn't use it to remove the sticker residue from slabs."

Only use acetone on raw coins. If you want to remove the slab use a hammer.

tmot99 · June 20, 2005 2:55AM

Putting your hand in acetone will typically not hurt you in any way (unless you have a cut). However, it will remove oils off of your skin contaminating the acetone.

nwcs · June 20, 2005 3:33AM

Correct. Some people, though, are sensitive to acetone. It will take all the oils off your fingers, too, and it will feel weird for a while. Acetone will get rid of organic residues on coins. Goo Gone is best for removing sticker residue on slabs. Acetone will damage plastics.

AlixTCat · June 20, 2005 3:53AM

I also used acetone to remove red paint from a Morgan. It was not coming off after a soak, so I had to use a Q-tip to gently remove it. Worked like a charm. But I would not recommend using a Q-tip except VERY gently. This was a $10 coin, so I was not worried about hairlines. A more expensive coin may have needed special care.

19Lyds · June 20, 2005 5:03AM

<< <i>Doesn't acetone melt the plastic used to make slabs? Removing tape residue from coins is O.K. but I wouldn't use it to remove the sticker residue from slabs. >>

I did not intend to imply that I use acetone to remove sticker residue from slabs, only raw coins. Acetone will chew through plastic like a hot knife through butter and there is almost no way to fix the problem once this occurs!

Slab sticker residue is best removed with a piese of masking tape but you need to be carefule on some of the older green PCGS slabs as the gold colored embossing will also be removed. DLRC puts inventory stickers on all their slabbed coins which can be a real bear to removed without trashing that embossing!

As far as the red paint on coins, I doubt you would ever find that on a true collectible as the red usually indicates that the coin was used as "house" money. House money, although not too common today was used to feed jukeboxes by barteders/waitresses to keep the music going.

Edited for the Red comments.

carl · June 20, 2005 5:06AM

You sound like you want to clean some coins. I've experimented with several different things and although many say Acetone because it won't disolved the coin. I've tried comercial grade Acetone, like what you buy at WalMart and it really does very little to a coin. I've tried kitchen soap, hair shampoo, gasoline, paint thinner, battery acid and lots of other fluids. One of the best to clean silver coins is actually fabric softener with a little table salt mixed in. Little soaking and then just rince with water. There is a Silver Polish on the market that has minute amounts of Silver in it so that it makes silver coins really look new. Battery acid usually only works well on copper coins because it's not for melting Silver but will react with the copper coins to form coppersulfate. Oh yeah, the coins will be gone, not just cleaned. Oddly enough if you mix Acetone, gasoline, paint thinner and fuel oil, put it all in a large metal container with thick walls, add your coins to the solutions, then light the whole thing you'll notice after the flame goes out your coins will be well toned. However, many collectors call this artificial toning and that is not well accepted. I once left some coins in a pair of jeans that went through a few wash machine cycles and came out really new looking but a little banged up with scratches.
Reallistically, don't clean coins. If as others have said you have some kind of plastic stuck to the coins, then the Acetone is what you want.

19Lyds · June 20, 2005 5:10AM

<< <i>if you mix Acetone, gasoline, paint thinner and fuel oil, put it all in a large metal container with thick walls, add your coins to the solutions, then light the whole thing.... >>

Ka-blooey!

Dang! There go the eyebrows!

Acetone Bath Questions

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