A few months ago I traded my dusty stamp catalog for a coin set from Thailand. Nice interesting coins but the manufacturer that put the set together (in a blue silk box, emblem, etc) GLUED the coins to fabric. The box was stained & worn & there was a melting plastic legend sitting on top of the coins so I wanted to rescue the coins from the surface contamination, glue and fabric. But after hours of dipping in acetone, gently attempting to remove the remnants of glue & fabric and accepting the failure, I now come here to ask for better suggestions should I ever encounter such a challenge again. It pains me to see the surface damaged from the glue. Oh, and if there is anyway to somehow restore those poor little damaged surfaces, I'd appreciate that advice as well. Thanks all.
E-poxy you can forget. Hot melt glue your only hope is probably heat. Super glue is removed with acetone. Most of the rest of the glues will at least be affected by water and hot water is better. Boiling water may work as much as 100 times faster and a drop of soap may even speed that up. Do not try boiling soapy water. Having said all of that, my guess is that the surfaces have already been messed up by the glue.
Depending on the type of glue used there are several possibilities! The chemicals used to manufacture the glue have already reacted with the color stained frabic and the coins surface...the dip you tried will or should remove most of the tack residue, however, to reaction with the coins surface will be a permanate vestige on the coins surface with out resorting to whisking very harshly. Wish we had better news for you... Regards, RickieB
Since acetone didn't do it, try isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol.) See if you can get something better than the standard isopropyl which is about 79%. Try for something in the 90+% range.
Actually this is the best and safest method. Of course to add to this, warm the water also. use distilled water only. Tap water is to full of stuff. If you have a water softener, your water contains NaCl. Now do not put the coins in a metal type pot and then on a stove. If possible, use a glass coffee maker. Put a glass or glass cup on the hot plate portion of a coffee make, allow to get warm and see if the stuff starts to dissolve. DO NOT allow to boil. Although this may help to disolve the junk on the coin, it will also increase other reactions you may not like. Distilled water has a high disolving capability compared to tap water that already contains lots of just stuff, to put it simply. When using the Acetone or Alcohol as suggested, first test to see if not contaminated. Put a small amount on a clean glass dish and allow to evaporate. If a residue, do not use since this solution is contaminated. If the water method doesn't work, the Acetone failed, then do try the Alcohol. Warm Alcohol will also work faster but you must be carefull since if heated it could ignite. Again, if using use only glass utinsils, never metal pans. And as noted, if the alcohol is contaminated with other chemicals, it could do more damage to the coins. If all fails, then there is the last resort and then the coins will be considered cleaned but if they are yours, so what. At Walmart in the jewlery department, never could spell jewelery, they have a generic cleaner. I've used it on coins to remove fingerprints and it works fantastically.
