Acetone Mystery

Even better news: apparently these are now back to being readily available and cheap, at least from Amazon -- around $10 for a pack of 500, "fits most". (I'm not "most", unfortunately, so I don't know if I'd be able to use them. At that price, I might give them a try, though.)

 

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MS70 huh, thanks, I'm going to try it. Great post.

 

"Fits most" are actually large or extra large. If you search, you can find specific sizes (S,M, L or XL). Ones with textured surfaces are more comfortable, and you're less likely to drop things than the ones with smooth surfaces.

Cal

 

I use gloves

 

Thanks for all the replies! More are always welcome, but this reassured me about what to do and how to do it.

 

I’ve had good results using MS70 for hazing. Acetone should be tried first but do not expect much.
I suggest the following;
Overnight soak in acetone.
Working over a folded Terry cloth towel, remove coin from acetone. Gently roll a Qtip soaked in clean acetone across the three sides of the coin. Then a quick rinse in clean acetone.
If the hazing is still there;
Soak coin in MS70 for 30-60 seconds. Pour some NS 70 into a small glass. Remove coin from the soak glass and gently blot the surface of the coin with a Q tip soaked in the clean MS 70 from the small glass. (Don’t do put the Qtip directly into the NS 70 container. You might contaminate it) Gently roll the Qtip across the surface of the coin. Repeat on the remaining two sides. Rinse the coin under running hot water. Place coin on to a clean Terry cloth towel. Fold towel over coin and gently blot coin to dry it. Don’t rub it! When coin is dry dip coin in clean acetone. Remove coin immediately and let air dry.

 

Glass tipped tongs, like used in chemical labs?

 

Bravo, acetone isn't that bad unless you have a LOT of exposure. Unless perhaps during pregnancy.

 

MS70 is strong alkali and can dissolve skin...BE CAREFUL!

 

Glass tipped?

 

Acetone can remove dirt, gunk, oil and grime, new fingerprints even, it doesn't remove tarnish/toning.

The hazing can be tarnish (the beginning of toning) and if so, acetone won't remove it. as stated a coin dip like "MS70" would remove it but it is a mild corrosive, so follow directions and when in doubt leaving it alone is a better option. Dipping a coin too many times will destroy it's luster also.

Another thing for silver is milkspots. As far as I am aware, you can't get rid of them without damaging the coin, they will return even after dipping but they will be less noticeable for awhile. this also show as a spotty haze on a coin, almost like a liquid (milk) spilled on it and dried.

Best to know what you can and can't do with various liquids, products, chemicals and test on something you don't care about instead of wrecking something you do care about by going too far with something a product can't do.

Distilled water will do about what acetone will do, it's the same pH, but it's not a solvent like acetone is, so results may improve with acetone over distilled water, I like distilled water as the least intrusive first step, it's just water with no minerals, fluoride or chlorine, no impurities and a neutral pH. you can let it soak and air dry without spotting.
Besides acetone, I've also heard toluene or xylene will work on things that acetone doesn't touch as they are different solvents. but again, they don't remove tarnish/toning.

if the haze is tarnish/toning, a "coin dip" will likely be needed to remove it, but you should practice this and do it the least amount possible to get the desired effect, if it messes up flow lines or luster, from leaving it too long, or dipping too many times, you can't get that back again.

 

I've only seen one set.
Vintage or antique.
Resembled a compass drawing tool.

 

I've never seen one.

 

Before tackling expensive coins with any solvent/cleaner, practice with junk silver coins and common copper Lincoln cents. Once you're comfortable move up to the better coins .
Right now I have four 1970's Lincoln cents soaking in Acetone for a week and they look the same as the day I put them in. I had heard that Acetone would turn copper coins different colors, not yet for me.

 

I don't remember that point coming up in our previous discussions. The paper people cite about acetone attacking copper used an 18-hour exposure, in the presence of light ("ambient" light, brightness unspecified, which seems like a big omission).

 

I use either chop sticks with rubber bands or better yet wood tweezers that you use for feeding dead mice to snakes you can custom carve them use rubber bands to keep tension keep them on for the drying also. My set up looks like a meth lab.

 

I thought I remembered it was UV light...

 

I tried MS13 once and ended up with with a black eye.