Acetone Cleaning -- Your thoughts?

Odd that this is so long a post since it has been brought up so many times. A search of this web site for cleaning coins, Acetone, etc should bring up enough info for a book.
As for Acetone eating a coin. I've placed several different types of coins in a jar, covered it, place in my garage for a few days, then out in the Sun for a few days. Removing those coins showed nothing happened at all except the one Roosevelt Dime did appear a bit cleaner. Pennies, Nickels, Quarters all showed nothing and all in the same jar at the same time. Nothing dissolved.
In the past I've used almost every possible solution to test the cleaning abilities on coins, no rare ones of course. This would include battery Acid, Acetone, baking soda and water, Lemon Juice, Ketchup, Nitric Acid, Vinegar, spit, in the wash with cloths and almost anything possible. If a coin is so bad, dirty, dented, worn it makes a great experimental object.
At Walmart they now sell several types of jewlery cleaners. The one for Silver can really do some damage to a Silver Coin. I had a Mercury Dime that was really, really a mess and placed it in there. It got some really odd discolorations.
For really Uncirculated of Proof coins almost anything done in the way of cleaning will leave it's toll.

 

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Thanks for the link. As ususal for CU, there's misinformation mixed in with the true facts.

Absolutely untrue! However, if you are dumb enough to expose your acetone to light, radicals can form and that may do some surface damage. Pure, undegraded acetone WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT HURT ANY COIN, no matter what the metallic content.

There's no "salts" in olive oil, salts are ionic and will not dissolve in oil. However, there are organic acids and other organic molecules in olive oil, it's a complex mixture. Acetone is about the poorest solvent choice one can make for the removal of oil. Non-polar solvents, such as xylene, are the best solvents for the removal of oil.

These examples are why I absolutely do not visit that forum. I've said it before, there are some good, knowledgeble people on there....but there's a heck of a lot more people that just spout-off junk as if it's fact and will defend their false facts to the death.....then two or three other idiots will jump in to defend the first guy that's wrong. :hammer:

 

indeed..lots of idiots, and then there are those that think they know everything.

 

I've cleaned and polished statehood quarters with an expensive silver polish and you CAN still tell it was cleaned and polished. They were very circulated and this was done just to improve the looks of them without magnifacation. Oh well, I feel I've violated some kind of ethical trust in numismatics(?)

 

(speaking in deepest coinGod-like voice impression)
Ha Ha Ha..silly mortal! Why you should know that cleaning coins is bad bad bad! Whyyyy..........you should just throw the dirty ones away and buy some clean ones! Restoring them....now THAT is much, much different...Ho Ho Ho Ho.......(spoken while gazing into a very large, magnified, well lit, expensive 24k gold and "never-cleaned coin" studded framed mirror admiring thyself)

 

I find this true with all the different forums, including here.

 

However it is fun sometimes to do go to those other forums and read some of those wierd things. So many forums and web sites mention how Acetone ruins, discolors, melts coins so I've tried these things for years. I've left Copper coins in Acetone for hours, days, weeks and in the shade, sun, cold and now in this lousy 90+ temperatures now having. Presently have several pennies (cents) in a jar of Acetone since this post started and outside. If those coins vanish it's only due to some kid finding them.

 

Your far from the only one doing those things. At many flea markets I see people constantly demonstrating metal polishes, auto polishes, furniture polishes and for some reason they always use coins. One was using those Ike Dollars.
I usually save those when I find them and attempt to restore them a little. Soaking in Acetone, Laquer thinner, Alcohol and distilled water rinses has done a decent job of that. However, the final is to put them on a kitchen window sill for several months. They slowly start to look normal.

 

You had some bad acetone or some an organic surface coating then brother. I've soaked a lot of cents in reagent grade acetone and I've never seen any ill effect.....maybe I'm just lucky?

 

Indeed!

 

I have learned rule # 1 never change the appearance of a coin

 

lemon juice as a cleaner?

I have heard that lemon juice and a little salt can be used to clean coins without damage.

What would be the draw back to using this mixture?

 

abrasion from salt crystals, color alteration due to the acidic effect/reaction from the lemon to the metal

 

You heard wrong!

Acidic damage removing metal from the surface.

 

AHHHH, yes now we are talking about me again.

 

The same problem as if it was dipped in Vinegar. You might add it to something your eating. Also, you didn't say which is used first, the salt or the juice.
Once more if a coin is changed by placing in Acetone, it is due to something in the Acetone or something on the coin. Like I mentione several posts ago, I still have those coins in that jar of Acetone. They have been in the Sun, shade, wind, rain, neighbors laud dogs, smelly bar-b-ques and all coins still look the same. As I said it they vanish, it's only because they were stolen. I'm planning on leaving them there for several months in hopes something happens.

 

Really? Acetone is a poor choice for removing oil? What are you, some kind of chemist?

OK, OK, but what about just a quick dip in white vinegar, then rinse that off with distilled water? It's just that many of us of course use oil, and xylene is so toxic. Any other good choices than that?