acetone bath

Can someone help me. I have a 1922 peace dollar that has some varnish spilt on it. The advice i have been given is to give it an acetone bath. My question is for how long should it soak

 

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I give it a few hours and start over with a fresh batch of acetone. It may take several baths. No rubbing of any kind.

 

Thank you. I will give it a go

 

Cover the acetone or it will evaporate fast and turn the coin regularly so both sides get the same exposure. Give us an update when you are finished. Thanks.

 

Will do, thanks for the advice

 

Hmmmm, I don't know. Not so fast IMO! That coin "could" look a lot worse after an acetone bath. Whatever is under that varnish could be baked/etched into the surface. The eye appeal could look a lot worse then it does now.

What does the other side look like?

 

It's been soaking over an hour now. The other side was absolutely pristine.

 

Never mind...............to late.

 

It's got mottled varnish. Whatever is underneath is not going to be worse than the varnish itself! We're not talking about removing toning here that might hide an old cleaning. It's varnish. Of course it has to be removed.

 

I don't think it's a risk.
This is a 1922-D common date and it's a scenario where it might look OK
if the varnish can be safely removed. As it is now it is a melt coin,
if it looks worse after it's not going to be worth less.
But if it looks better it may pick up a little value.

 

You might be right. I'm strictly talking about eye appeal. The coins is pretty much toast and only worth melt anyway. With that said; it doesn't (didn't) look half bad as is.

 

So, after 4 hours of soaking and renewing the acetone after two hours and frequently turning the coin we are at this stage. Before and after is it worth continuing. I have two more of these and others from '21 and '23 so itis not a disaster

 

You should have left it as is. Let's see the other side.

 

The obverse

 

I see no point in continuing. You have all the varnish off of it. The mottled appearance it now has is because of the differences in exposure of the surfaces over the years.

 

It’s basically an au bullion coin and definitely improved without the varnish. I’d be tempted to give a quick dip to even the surfaces and let it start getting some color in a paper envelope. This is the kind of coin you really can’t hurt by experimenting on as it’s not a rare or valuable date

 

I use acetone all the time to get crud pvc and other debris off coins. I have a big bunch with glue on them I need to do