Acetone Soak For 7 Days?

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by fretboard, Aug 11, 2021.

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  1. fretboard

    fretboard Defender of Old Coinage!

    There's black crud above the date and around the four stars that are closer to the date. It's on the reverse as well above and into California and I was trying to remove or at least minimize that crud, didn't work too well. I think I'm okay though as it looks like it's starting to flake so hopefully by carrying it around with pocket change it will eventually flake off. ~Cheers! :D

    It started to remove the patina and it made an area a lot lighter in color and I wasn't trying to do that at all. It doesn't show in the pics but in hand it definitely shows.:shame: MS70 worked great on another copper token I worked on in the past but not this one at all. Acetone definitely works wonders, it just doesn't work every single time.
     
    fretboard, Aug 12, 2021
    #21 + Quote Reply
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  3. 1865King

    1865King Well-Known Member

    I don't know the value of that token but, the more you mess with it the bigger the chance of damaging it. The only suggestion I can make is soak it in distilled water over night and use a blunt tooth pick and see if you can carefully remove the crud around the hair. If this token has some value to it then stop right now and leave it as is. There is a good chance that if you remove the crud around the hair you may end up with a light copper color in that area. If it's a cheap token worth less than 5 dollars then go for it and see if you can remove it. I've messed around with a lot of foreign coins to see what it would take to remove dirt. 50% of the time you couldn't tell I messed with it. However, some of the time I wrecked the coin but when playing with coins worth almost nothing you can learn what you can and can't do. It can be fun too.
     
    1865King, Aug 12, 2021
    #22 + Quote Reply
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  4. Mike Thorne

    Mike Thorne Well-Known Member

    Leave it alone!
     
    Mike Thorne, Aug 12, 2021
    #23 + Quote Reply
  5. serafino

    serafino Well-Known Member

    Have you done the rock tumbler with Styrofoam pellets on sliver coins ?
     
    serafino, Aug 12, 2021
    #24 + Quote Reply
  6. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    That's kinda what I though. That black crud, and I mean all of it that looks rough and bumpy, not just what I circled -

    014ae82566beece80a7da4cafdcf37101cd6115584.jpg


    - that's been caused by corrosion, and nothing is gonna fix that. The rough and bumpy texture, that's what copper turns into when it corrodes. The black color and the texture is caused by toning in its terminal stages. Toning is corrosion.

    You're never gonna get rid of the texture short of wearing it off or sanding it off. You need to think of it just as you would like rust on a piece of steel, because in effect that's exactly what it is. Only it's not steel rust, it's copper rust.

    Now if you were to dip the token in a commercial coin dip, the black color would go away leaving behind pitting and bumps. But the whole coin would change color significantly, kinda like this cent did when I dipped the bottom half of it -

    penny test + 3 010.jpg



    You said MS70 lightened the coin's color, well that's because MS70 is a mild coin dip. What you see above is what full strength coin dip will do. But yeah, it'll take the black color off. But it is also the only thing that will take the black color off. You can soak that coin xylene for years and it's not gonna do anything. And I say xylene because you shouldn't use acetone on copper to begin with - it can sometimes turn copper weird colors.

    And by the way, for those reading this, you should never use MS70 on MS copper because it is notorious for turning copper a bluish or purplish color. On circ copper, it's a toss up as to what it's gonna do.
     
    GDJMSP, Aug 13, 2021
    #25 + Quote Reply
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  7. Mountain Man

    Mountain Man Well-Known Member

    To be honest . . . not with a coin, but with silver jewelry.
     
    Mountain Man, Aug 13, 2021
    #26 + Quote Reply
    serafino likes this.
  8. 1865King

    1865King Well-Known Member

    What is the value of this token?
     
    1865King, Aug 13, 2021
    #27 + Quote Reply
  9. Vertigo

    Vertigo Did someone say bust?

    Not much now...
     
    Vertigo, Aug 14, 2021
    #28 + Quote Reply
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