Acetone and then dip or just dip? ‘21 Morgan

I bought some EZ-est today and figure I’d take a crack at this coin.

Should I do some acetone baths to get rid of the PVC/whatever this green stuff is first and then dip? Or will the dip just remove it all?



(Before anyone says “don’t! Stop! Blasphemor!” - I inherited a bunch of uncirculated 21’s with various problems like this, It’s not going to bother me if it doesn’t turn out well, etc. Just felt like giving it a whirl and I’ll carefully follow the proper procedure as listed in other threads.)

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Hey man! Nice pick up.... There is a recent thread I believe in the Coin Chat section that goes in detail about acetone dipping. I was following it pretty close for a few days as I have never dipped a coin. I’ll see if I can track it down and ground guide you to it.

 

Go to page three of coin chat. Thread is called “Is Acetone Really The Trick”.

 

Thanks Randy, I’ve used acetone a ton, but have never used this heavier type of dip. I guess I’m wondering what to expect it to do against something like this.

As I recall now, I did try acetone on another one of these with the same green/brown funk. A couple baths didn’t remove it, so I had to take a q-tip/acetone to it... the result was:

 

I guess I could do the same with the first coin above, THEN dip it, was just curious if the EZ-est would take that stuff off without me having to q-tip the coin.

 

Crud!!! I must have dreamed I read acetone in your post. Time for me to go to bed! Sorry bout that.

 

Acetone first but learn the proper way to use it. You can soak the coin for days without harming the coin. One bath is not enough.
Dip is completely different. It is an acid and will kill your coin in just a few seconds. Don't use it full strength. Dip the coin for one or two seconds and neutralize the acid as fast as possible. Try it on an old silver coin with little value first.

 

Thanks. I’ll proceed with caution for sure- lots of reading to do before I try. Will start with a few long acetone baths to see what I can do about the gunk doing just that.

Maybe I’ll photograph the process if that would be educational for any other folks like myself... then can take it all the way until I dip the thing and see the result of that.

 

I use 1 part dip and 9 parts water, so you can see it working and stop when you wish without killing all luster if there to begin with. I pull it out often and rinse and check it and then either rinse well or put it back in until what I want. Its slow, but controllable.

Jim

 

Thank you all for your advice. Went out on the back deck today and performed my first dipping experiments.

@desertgem- Jim, thank you for the great advice of diluting the dip. It worked out great, I dipped three Morgans, two for practice and one problem-free. Didn’t kill the luster on it, kept enough skin to keep a classic look but absolutely improved the coin. Will post pictures later tonight or tomorrow of the “after” on that one. “Before” pics are below.

It was really cool to take it a bit at a time instead of having the stress of dipping into full strength EZ-EST and counting the milliseconds.

 

I wish somebody could have warned me before I used E-ZEST full strength on a couple of previously unharmed half dollars.

 

Before Two Acetone baths/Two Short Diluted EZ-EST Dips:

After:

 

I think that looks better but I'm waiting for someone to say otherwise.

 

I will say I'm glad I didn't have this stuff before I submitted these other ones.

I'd have been sorely tempted to use it, but it's a lot cooler having all the different original looks. The one above didn't go to PCGS with the others because it had the ugliest toning of the bunch as you can see in the "before" pictures- but I'm glad I can actually enjoy it now.

@Prez2 - I'm thinking I might be able to get away with one more diluted dip to try and lose the toning completely, but the cartwheel luster looks great as is and I'm going to be ticked off if I kill the coin altogether in search of a whiter look. The coin already looks much more presentable than it did this morning and it's neat to actually see the clashes clearly.

 

If you like it, that's really all that matters! My experience with E-ZEST is mixed. Sometimes it looks great afterwards, sometimes not so much. I think if you lose the luster, everybody will holler 'cleaned'.

 

Yeah, the '21 above (picture #3) looked terrible when I was done. I think that had more to do with the coin itself than what I did to it though... For some reason all the 83's I inherited look way better than the 21's even though they all appear to be uncirculated.

 

No, a coin in that condition - especially a silver dollar - is always worth more as it is than "beaten to a pulp". Now a '64 Kennedy half, GW quarter or FDR dime is a different story.

 

That one is being acetoned until I stop seeing stuff come off, then I’ll give it a shot. Judging by how bad the other ‘21 turned out I’m guessing it’s going to look flat and unimpressive when I’m done with it.