I purchased a coin that has something that looks like some black paint on it. I would like to remove the paint without damaging the coin. Her eis what I heard you can do... Is it correct? Soak in Acetone overnight Scrap paint off with a Toothpick Rinse in warm soapy water rinse in water let it air dry. Any Assistance will be greatly appreciated. Frank
I would just soak in acetone, and change out the acetone every 15 min for the first hour, then every 60 min for the next three hours. After that, leave overnight in fresh acetone. Don't use soap/toothpick/etc. If it's paint, the acetone will get it off. The coin might already be damaged from the paint chemicals, but at least the acetone will (in theory) stop the reaction.
Use a rose thorn in place of a tooth pick.......... You still run the risk of damaging the coin though, but like NK stated above, the coin may already be damaged by the paint chemicals.
Slivers of bamboo ( like from Kebobs) are favored by many because they have more conductive tubes ( xylem) and can draw up chemicals like acetone and keep the tip very soft, but as mentioned, consider a long time before deciding whether to do so. IMO.
A prolonged soak in acetone will remove or help remove some paints, but no means will it remove all of them. Xylene would be a better choice for that. And if you have to pick at or scratch at the paint - with anything- to get it off, you're going to scratch the coin. Best not to do that at all.
While this may be true, I can't imagine recommending the use of Xylene to remove paint from a coin until Acetone is tried first. Isn't Xylene somewhat toxic? Also, I'm pretty certain that it's insoluble in water, so getting it off a coin after you use it might add another stage of "cleaning" to the problem. If acetone works, use acetone, if the acetone doesn't work, contact Thad and try Xylene, I suppose.
One of the primary uses of xylene is to clean up & remove paint. It works on paints that acetone won't work on, as well as of those that acetone will work on. As for toxic, yeah I suppose it is if you drank it. I've had my hands & arms in it plenty of times, it never hurt me.
