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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Eduard, post: 2776670, member: 8959&quot;]I purchased a scarce late cent once (1796 draped bust which had been lacquered by a previous owner. </p><p>The shine and unnatural appearance of the lacquer bothered me, so I decided to remove it. A risky thing to do since it is a scarce variety of the 1796 cent at R-5.</p><p>I first tried acetone, but with limited success. The acetone bath did not remove much of the lacquer at all, and it left the surface looking a bit splotchy from the partial removal. I then tried xylene and this was quite effective. </p><p><br /></p><p>Lacquers are normally acrylic or polyester based. Acetone is a semi-polar solvent which means it will not be very effective in removing polymers with a large non-polar character, like lacquers. Xylene is much less polar than acetone, and I assume that is the reason which it was effective removing the lacquer. &#039;Like dissolves like&#039; so to speak. </p><p>Note that if the the lacquer is of the the cured type (i.e chemically cross-linked structure), then a solvent will normally not remove that, and it would have to be removed by mechanical means.&nbsp; That was not the case in my case.</p><p>The use of a solvent like acetone on copper normally leaves the surface looking drab and lifeless presumably because it dries out the surface. In my case, however, the end result was quite acceptable and I much prefer the current look rather than the shiny, unnatural look it had with the lacquer.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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