Is 99.5% acetone good enough?

There are contaminants that are soluble in water and there are contaminants that are soluble in acetone. There are contaminants that are soluble in both and contaminants that are soluble in neither.

What you're trying to accomplish is to remove them without disturbing the underlying surface of the coin. With the understanding that if the contaminant has been there a long time it's possible the rest of the coin has tone and you might have an original color spot that gets revealed when you remove the contaminant.

 

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Would you guys recommend an overnight soak in distilled water?

@Burton Strauss III @Kentucky @SuperDave

 

Not me, but @BadThad and @SuperDave are the experts...

 

Everything is looking much better. I decided to do one more overnight soak.


This is the residue from the first overnight soak. Pretty gross!


Looks like the orange bag won out. Should I use it to set under the dish that holds them for the overnight soak or use it just for the final rinse? Or both?

 

Why did you post the picture of the bowl with the gravy? And what happened to the roast beef? Last time I checked this was a coin forum ;-)


PS: Nice coins!

 

That was the bowl we cooked your enchiladas in

 

An that is why you want FOOD GRADE Acetone. No benzene in that 0.5%. Because otherwise they taste nasty.

 

LOL this made my day... but my stomach still hurts ;-)

 

Can't wait for him to invite you over for sour beef and potato dumplings. That should very interesting .

 

Next time I invite him for dinner, he'll feel soooo uncomfortable... revenge is a dish best served cold

 

Brandon word to the wise......make sure you stop on the way over and fill up on some Hasen Pfeffer at La Lapin Peter.....hutch,and bunny bar.

 

Replying before I read all the newer posts, but do not rinse with tap water and then air dry them!!! Rinsing with tap water is fine, but then either pat dry with a towel or do a final distilled water rinse. Reason - tap water ANYWHERE contains some dissolved solids which will appear on the coins with air drying. If you blot them off, you take off most of the water and minimize this. Put a drop of your tap water on a mirror and let it dry. This way you can see what you would leave on a coin by air drying it.

 

Not a bad idea.

 

Wait for the distilled water, these coins have been waiting awhile and they are in no hurry. One thought, I have soaked foreign coins and have had bad occurrences when I soaked Cu/Ni, Ag and Cu together...the silver and Cu/Ni tended to discolor.

 

Might not make things any better, but certainly can't hurt in this case. I was mainly worried because these were prime candidates for PVC plasticizer infection, and wasn't concerned with anything else on the coins.

 

Without knowing (and sometimes knowing) the nature of the residue problem - distilled water is always the best starting place. It's cheap, much cheaper than solvents like acetone.

I agree with Dave, if the suspect residue was plasticiser, water would probably wouldn't do much. However, I would still always recommend starting with water over solvents. There may be some inorganic materials it would have removed prior to using acetone.

I always recommend this sequence in order:

1) water
2) acetone
3) xylene

http://www.lincolncentforum.com/for...0-The-First-Steps-to-Proper-Coin-Conservation

 

Don't discount yourself, you've made some excellent posts!