This is the kind of conservation you can do at home when you check (and I know all of you do this every month - right?) to make sure any coins in your collection are not beginning to deteriorate. Before: After: Now, the trick is you need to decide how to do it. Acetone works BUT if the coin has "skin" the acetone will remove it and the coin may not look as nice or original. In this case, a dry "spot removal" was done using a stereo scope that left the rest of the coin untouched. It is a shame that graders at all the services don't have the time, tools, or ability to remove easily fixed imperfections on coins unless you ask and pay for conservation.
I know what you're saying.. I've posted a lot of "extreme" conservations I've done, but never really mention the quick dips and other minor spot removals... but then I limit myself to mostly copper with silver getting acetone dips...
Any "skin" that acetone would remove is organic contamination and not toning. Acetone will not touch toning, but will remove crud or "makeup" that is masking an imperfection. I assume the dry "spot removal" was done with a rose thorn or a sharpened bamboo skewer...
It's kind of another one of those definition things. Quite often what is described as "skin", that skin is comprised of both toning and organic contamination. So what you sometimes have is a coin that this collector or that collector, or any group of collectors, happens to like the way a coin looks - just as it is. So if you use acetone, and you remove that organic contamination, while trying to remove something else like verdigris spots, you have now changed the way the coin looks - and they don't like it anymore because the "skin", or at least part of it, is now gone.
