Acetone Questions.

So, if I use my fingers, the oils will be removed from them when I reach into the acetone to retrieve the coin, enough to ignore the possibility of leaving a print on the edge of the coin? I can see a lot of people are leary of the process and want to be sure they are conserving and not destroying the coin.

 

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What I mean is that acetone will do no more harm to your hands than it has done to your mothers hands through the years of her using nail polish remover and your hands will do no more harm to a coin than the professional graders do when they grade the coin holding them in their bare hands - provided you hold them properly, that is.

 

BTW, if you don't agree with the graders using bare hand, watch this (at about 2:00) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAQv6qmGcis

 

A little rubbing on a desk for good measure at 2:55 too.

 

That was interesting! When I worked for the museum, gloves were required whenever handling artifacts to prevent fingerprint damage.

 

To me, that is incredible. Does it make a difference if it is gold? I would be surprised to see that with copper. Maybe they treat their hands with something, But I can't imagine that. But the question is, should we wear a glove of some type, or use our bare hands. We can beat around the bush forever on this, or have an expert give a definitive answer.

 

no and no.

 

Fingerprint are water based, not oil, unless you first touch them in areas ( some not mentionable) where there are apocrine or oil based glands such as the face and others. Since finger/palm friction ridges are for gripping, nature didn't put oil glands there. Old time film photographers use to rub "nose grease" on negative scratches before enlarging ( useless info for the current time).

Fingerprints can have water, various salts, urea and various other compounds.

The good news is that Acetone removes these water based components as well.

Jim
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What about coins with edge lettering? Doesn't handling those by the edges with bare hands cause fingerprint damage to the "third surface"?

 

I experimented with this quarter. The first pic is as it has been since a long time ago. The second pic is after about an hour in the acetone. I think I will do electrolysis on it now for a comparision. I will post a pic if I do.

 

Reviving an old thread... if acetone affects copper with discoloration, wouldn't alloyed coins with copper, say coin silver, become discolored? It appears that the 1 hour bath in the above Washington silver quarter didn't really produce any sort of black color (in fact the opposite with greater luster), but just double checking in case there's a "chance" that it may randomly occur.

 

I've never had acetone adversely affect copper, and I've used it many times.

 

Here is the singular paper that initiated the discussions here on this subject. the authors were using a grant from a company that promoted a copper cleaning agent ( for joining copper tubing) to the exclusion of acetone which was many times cheaper. I have traced this work several times, but it hasn't seemed to pass through peer-reviewed publications. For this to affect copper coinage would require storage conditions that are not practiced ( and in my opinion would not even under such conditions).

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013468601003590

 

Now, that is an interesting observation!

I can certainly buy that acetone could be photolyzed to acetic acid, particularly with strong UV and air exposure. But I would put my money on the idea that those "discolored coins" -- the ones that @GDJMSP has seen with his own eyes -- were attacked by something already on their surface, and that the acetone did nothing more than expose metal (and surface compounds) that had previously been concealed -- perhaps by grime, perhaps by a layer of something that looked like normal oxidation but really wasn't.

 

From what I have seen of it, it is either that the acetone used is not pure or the coin has already been treated with something and the acetone reacts with that. But the result is the Lincoln that was semi normal in color now looks off color.