I have a few buffalo nickels soaking in pure acetone before I put them in 2x2s. That’s about 12 hours facing up, now 12 hours facing down. They’ll go into distilled water next. Should I gently use a q-tip on the nicer ones with little gunk on them, or just leave on whatever the acetone doesn’t eat off? Some of them felt a touch slimy when I was flipping them over (into a new bath of acetone). I’ll post final photos when I pull them out for good.
For whatever it's worth acetone typically does a poor job of removing ordinary dirt and grime - which is what is found on most circulated coins. Long soaks in distilled water usually does a better job. And though I would usually advise against it as a general rule, given the the condition of the coins in question you're not really going to hurt anything by using a Q-tip to help remove gunk.
Acetone dissolves grease and so helps remove dirt. Unfortunately, it leaves the surface of the coin completely open to the atmosphere, your breath when you exhale, dust specks, etc. Unless you protect the coins with some kind of oil after the soak, they WILL corrode.
Whatever it takes to do the job. Even if ya leave a coin in water for a week it's not gonna hurt anything. But, it may help a lot.
I meant to start with distilled water but for over zealous. I’ll probably do water acetone water again to do it right. Also, some coins are looking UNC to me, and some have a variety on them. I’ll be extra careful with those. The pictures below are two different coins. Note the feathers on the 1916.
This is prima facie evidence something is coming off those coins and you're having an effect. I'm curious about that 1920 in the top picture with a greenish tint to the crud in the recesses. Was that one slimy? The one two coins to the right of the 1907 Liberty?
I've heard of guys literally soaking them for MONTHS. They do rinse and resoak. No sense letting loose stuff re-adhere due to evaporation. TRUST ME ON THIS - the U.S.S. Central America shipwreck coins are soaking for months, and not just in distilled water, either.
Nice, if I ever do use a Qtip, I gently roll it back and forth over the surface as opposed to actually rubbing it. A good rince with distilled water after helps keep things from resettling as the solvent evaporates. Then there is always Verdi-care to prevent recurring issues,
That one was definitely slimy, but oddly enough, so were a couple of the ones that seemed to just had minor circulation grime. The ones in the middle there were a bit slimy. Tonight they go into distilled water.
While we are talking about these Buffaloes, the 1919 which is very dark, row three, opinions on what caused the almost black color. I've got a couple like that, wouldn't the acetone assist in reviving the coin ?
I guess we’ll see! I took a q-tip to that one; didn’t have much of an effect. There’s a LOT of crud on that.