Cloudy proof

I have this proof coin, and it had a fingerprint on it, so I gave the coin a quick acetone bath. The fingerprint is gone, but now the coin is all cloudy.

I first removed the coin from the acetone, let it air dry, and I noticed the cloudiness. I then put it back in the acetone, and then rinsed it off with distilled water… Still cloudy.

So did I screw up this coin for good, or is there something else I can try?

Other than the cloudiness this coin is flawless…

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

As Doug would say

You can't undo a cleaning

 

Did the coin sit in the acetone until it evaporated? I wouldn't recommend trying to clean the coin anymore. The contaminate looks to be permanent now.

Maybe put it in one of those paper coin envelopes and hope for some really cool toning. May take a few years though.

 

You could try EZest. Works well on proofs if done properly.

 

No only a few minutes

What contaminates? i used 100% pure acetone.

I might try this.

 

Try a fresh bath of acetone for just a few seconds.

 

It was worth a try but no help

 

Your post made it seem like the haze was not present prior to the acetone wash. It would have been contaminates the acetone lifted either from the coin or the vessel you used to soak the coin. The appearance of the haze on the coin looks like something pooled on the field portion of the coin between the devices. Thus, why I asked if the acetone evaporated on the coin.

 

I would stop where you are with this coin. The only thing you can do is to dip it. It needs to be a quick dip in a week solution. You will kill the coin if you do it wrong.
It looks great just the way it is.

 

It was a glass bowl.
The coating thing would make since... I have done several proofs the same way, and never had this issue.

 

Use a double or triple acetone bath.

 

I'd use this, although I usually dilute it to roughly half strength with distilled water for removing haze. As mentioned it works very well if done properly.

 

When you guys use this 'EZest', what do you do? Hold the coin by it's edges (wearing rubber gloves?) and do a quick dip with an distilled water rinse?

 

Not only a fresh bath of "new" acetone but clean out the container you're pouring the acetone into. Wipe it out with acetone on a paper towel.

Acetone will cloud up a proof if it has impurities in it.

 

I don't even bother with the gloves though I guess I probably should, but yeah that's pretty much what I do. Afterwards I usually rinse with distilled water, dip in fresh acetone let that dry real quick and then store the coin in it's flip, airtite, etc.
I'd recommend practicing on some worthless proofs, circulation coins, etc first just to get the hang of it. But it's really pretty simple to do and I've found the results on haze like OP's coin generally tend to be fantastic.

 

I agree that diluting it is a good idea. And I don't bother with the rubber gloves either. I tried it for the first time on some really hazed over silver Ike proofs. Most of them came out very well, but a couple may have just been too far gone. They had gone underwater during Katrina. Since then I used it dozens of times on proofs with varying degrees of success, but they are almost always better than before the dip.

 

Yes, I started fresh.

So, how would a person know if a coin has been coated?

Without finding out the hard way, as i may have done.

 

I would dip it, proofs hold up well to a quick dip since there are very little or no "luster lines" to destroy . As others have said, a diluted solution is advised. I have cleaned up some pretty cloudy proofs with a dip, leaving the coin with little or no evidence of the bath.

Mike

 

I have a couple of coins that came from mint sets (Moroccan coins from the 50's) which did the same thing. They were clear before the acetone (except for a couple of spots that I wanted to treat), and afterwords they clouded up just like that. I want to try a quick dip, but haven't bought any yet.