Do fingerprints affect a proofs grade

I used acetone for cleaning some old silverware once, but I was never foolish enough to pour it down the drain. I always stored such things in a glass jar until the next recycling program for hazardous materials was held in our city.

Chris

 

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I have been following this thread with great interest because the subject is so new to me. I have never dipped a coin because for most of my collecting I thought it was absolutely verbotten and since I have learned otherwise I have not had the opportunity. I say this because I don't want to be seen as argumentative - I'm still learning.
That being said; Doug, why did you say new acetone MUST be used for each coin? What happens to the acetone in the dipping process to negate its repeated use?

 

when you take a bath, the dirt comes off right! leaving behind dirty bath water. contaminated Acetone.

 

This is the absolute truth! I had a 2009 Proof Lincoln with a cloudy area on it and thinking it was a grease contaminant, dipped it in my bottle of used acetone.

Once it dried, the thing looked worse than when it went in! All clouded up with drying spots on it! I changed out my acetone for some fresh acetone and it came out looking fresh as the day it was made.

BTW, I dump my used acetone in my belligerant neighbor's gas tank!







Nah!! I'm just kidding about the gas tank thing!

 

If acetone doesn't work, you might consider a quick dip in somethink like diluted jeweluster. It may remove the fingerprint if it's not been there long enough to eat into the surface.

 

My advice as a chemist.....NEVER use ammonia on coins, especially proofs. NEVER, I don't care how diluted it is.

Really, this thread is becoming ridiculous. It's a simple matter of using acetone, I've done it hundreds of times. There's no ill effects, no explosions, no health effects, no residue as long as you have a brain and high quality acetone.

 

We had specific written permission to dump up to 10 ppm from the site. That was roughly 1 gal. per day of acetone. About 1/3 of that came from my area and typically contained 1 - 5 ppm acetone and was the only known source for the site. The city never had a problem with that. They were not too fond of toluene, formaldehyde, and methylene chloride though.

 

oh nothing to worry then we dont use plastic here but thanks for the safety page

 

pretty soon you and i will be the only one left collecting i mean acetoning coins

 

At 8:00am this morning I put a 1974-S 40% Eisenhower Dollar in a jar of E-Z-Est.
At 8:00pm this evening, I took it out. Thats 43,200 seconds in the dip. The typical dip lasts perhaps 5 seconds tops which means that this 1974-S has been dipped a total of 8,640 times.

..

http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/...tion=view¤t=1974-SIKEafter12HourSoak-01-1.mp4

Dipping an AU coin can produce disastrous results along the same lines as dipping copper. It's just not something you do and the best advice I have is if you are in doubt, then do not dip.
However, dip has been used on literally millions of BU Morgans, Peace, Walking Liberty, Washington, Roosevelts and Kennedy's with absolutely no adverse affects as it's not so much the dip as it is an inexperienced individual choosing the wrong coin to dip. Dipping can be very bad but it can also be very good and will not always destroy a coin.
Draw your own conclusions from my photographs regarding dipping and I'm really sorry I screwed up my IKE after 8,640 dips!

 

yo grandpa come and take a look. i think the coin has become grainy your thoughts?

 

I really need to get my camera set up rolling. Please keep an open mind to this. I recently got a roll of misc 1970's proof cents separated from sets, not properly cared for in other words - all with issues. On a whim after reading this thread I thought, what the hey, lets try it. So I smudged my finger up ol' Abes nose, viewed it through the hastings yep. good enough of a print to send to AFIS. I have what I think is an unusual fiber in a cloth. it is a flat fiber under microscopic magnification. (vs round) Using light thumb and index finger pressure it lifted the print with out leaving any visible hairlines. Now I need my camera set up to verify, what I think this cloth is doing or not doing. Anyways its called Casabella Glass Magnet Cloth. I think it is intended for plasma Screens.. word of caution. It will polish the oxidation and dirt on a circulated brown penny to a sheen.


Surprised no one has mentioned Methyl Ethyl Keytone? Acetone is like beer as MEK is to whiskey. Sweet smelling dangerously flammable and hazardous stuff. careful!

I have a whizzed 94 morgan that appears almost Proof Like. Can't hurt this baby anymore. BRB

 

edited

 

That grainyness existed before Mr. Eisenhower ever even knew about the dip.

I'll pull another one out and shoot before and after pics but the entire point being that E-Z-Est isn't as damaging as most folks think. Whats more damaging is chossing the wrong coin to dip.

 

Good. Bad. Ugly.

It's GOOD (nice) to find a Proof coin in circulation. It's BAD to find one with prints all over it because it's UGLY to see in this state.

I know this is not on topic (precisely) with the OP but we have just seen a dipped IKE so here's something else I'd like to pose to the thread.

I found this proof coin a couple weeks ago when I requested my change from a cashier in be in dollar coins that I could see in the till. The proof was a surprise but the prints were a disappointment.

Despite the 'to clean or not to clean' argument and despite the damage already done unto this coin days ago when the prints found their mark, can Acetone be used on golden dollars? should it be avoided? What about MS-70 cleaner? Other suggestions?

Given the state of this particular coin, I'm tempted to experiment. Assume proper handling and procedure will be followed as Doug described in an earlier post.

Thanks.


2007-S Proof $1:

 

When using acetone in the manner in which Doug has mentioned MANY times, do you hold the coin with your fingers, latex gloves, cotton gloves or a dipping net ? It seems like you will be introducing acetone from the previous dip into the following dip no matter what you do. So is it best to just hold the coin by the edges and drop it in the acetone or continue to hold it under the acetone for the prescribed duration and then the next ...