Acetone bath or not?

If you understand a little about the chemistry of how acetone works, it is an extremely useful tool. It will remove many types of organic residue. it won't react with The metal or toning. The biggest drawback is not knowing what your exposing under the residue.

As always, make sure you know how to handle acetone safely. It evaporated quickly and is flammable

 

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I'm leaning hard towards doing the dip. Is there a recommended duration I should leave the coin submerged? I will be doing it in a small shot glass size glass, covered to reduce rapid evaporation, and I'll leave it outdoors to vent.

Length of time in the acetone? Anyone with experience doing it, please chime in.

 

Don't use it on these...

 

Any time from a couple of hours to overnight. We aren't dealing with a chemical reaction here, just solution. If you put salt in water (sugar dissolves too quick) and give it a quick stir, it won't all be dissolved, but left overnight, it will. Think about it like cleaning paint brushes.

 

Thanks for the info guys.

 

Someone here recently posted a slab, that had 'Improper Cleaning' on it.

Does make me wonder if any of graders have 'Proper' cleaning ???

ed.:
What I was saying KY, is that Acetone doesn't have a 'measurable' pH, but it is extremely volatile.

Water ? Probably wouldn't hurt, but even pure water self-ionizes into a few H3O's (acid) , and OH's (base). (don't fall the the 'de-ionized' bottled water - it's a marketing gimmick )

 

I have used acetone on hundreds of coins and have never damaged one. I use shot glasses as well. Pick a size that fits the coin. You don't want one that lets the coin lay flat in the bottom of the glass. You want a size that will hold the coin up by the rims.
Place the coin in the glass and fill with acetone. I use an old glass flashlight lens to cover the shot glass. Put it in a safe spot, overnight.

I use the lens as a gate to pour off the acetone on a cotton rag. The lens keeps the coin in the glass. Next, I let the coin slide out of the glass on a clean rag. If you picked the proper glass, only the rims of the coin can rub the glass.

Now it's time for the second bath. Clean all the glass with water and dry and start all over with fresh acetone. I do this bath for an hour or two. Now it's time for a test to see what is still floating around in the acetone. Put a drop on a piece of glass or mirror and let it dry. You will see if there is a need for a third bath.

I do the third bath most of the time. It can't hurt and I know that the acetone has done all it's going to do with no harm to the coin.

I'm not a fan of using Q-Tips or anything that rubs the surfaces of the coin. I'm also not a fan of using water as a final bath. Some won't agree but I'm good with that.

 

This is the likely process I'll be employing.

Thanks!

 

I use acetone on the ones I get out of a Coin Star reject bin when they are stuck together. At @Kentucky 's suggestion, I acetoned one of my 1928-P Peace Dollars with NO harmful effects.