My first post and some questions about preservation and storage.

Greetings all!

First, I want to thank everyone for their contributions to this website. I started collecting coins about three years ago, and I have learned a great deal from everyone's willingness to share. I have told people I know that coin collecting is admittedly a strange hobby because one largely enjoys this hobby alone within the confines of their own home. Well, websites like this make it a lot less solitary adventure. For that, I am truly thankful.

My collection now spans about 150 coins. I am an avid collector of British Honduras from 1937 to 1973. I like B. Honduras because it's one of the overlooked British colonies that happens to have been in the Western Hemisphere, relatively close to home. I also like the series because finding gems within this date range can be downright beguiling. Well worn examples are plentiful, problem free AU coins are scarce for certain denominations, attractive uncirculated pieces can be a real challenge to track down, but true gems are few and far between. But I do enjoy the challenge.

The time has come for me to streamline my collection by selling or trading some of my duplicates and by preserving and committing to long term storage my keepers. Here are my questions:

1. We all know that an acetone bath is commonly used to cleans coins of unwanted contaminates before long term storage. Here's what I don't know . . . Does acetone work equally well for all coin compositions: bronze, silver, copper-nickel, nickel-brass, among others. Is acetone equally harmless to all metal compositions, or are there some things I should know?

2. If acetone is not the best choice for some metal compositions, then what preservation method would you recommend? Let's all assume the objective is to cleans coins of unwanted contaminates for long term storage, not to "clean" or to make a coin shinier or more "attractive."

I hope everyone is well. The summer here in Georgia has been uncommonly mild and uncommonly wet. I hope fair weather finds you wherever you are.

Thanks in advance.

-B

 

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Welcome. Where in Georgia? I lived in Athens, GA for 5 years. As to "cleaning" which for many is a 2Xfour-letter word, acetone will not harm any metal, although there are some reports of copper with acetone and strong ultraviolet light leading to discoloration. Any pure solvent would be fine to use as long as it is clean and fresh. Water can be tap variety or distilled, but if tap water is used, it is prudent to do a final rinse with distilled. For conservation and storage, I would rinse with hot running tap water in a sink, followed by a distilled water rinse and then a rinse with clean acetone. Pat dry or allow to air dry, just no rubbing. Happy collecting!

 

Thanks for the reply. We live in Roswell, a city just north of Atlanta. I lived in Athens as well when attending UGA, and my older sister lives there still.

Yes, cleaning is a big no, no. But despite all the discussions over the years about acetone, I have never read a definitive post about its potential reactions or usefulness when applied to different metal compositions. I suppose copper, bronze, and brass are the most delicate of compositions with the greatest potential for unforeseen reactions. I was only hoping for some confidence building advice before I begin.

I am ready to put my keepers in long term storage so I can move on to other collecting interests.

Thanks again.

 

In the real world, where we exercise a certain level of caution when working with an enormously flammable substance, acetone is completely inert to any metals we will be handling. There is always misinformation about as to its' effective use - what it works against and when/how to use it properly - but a forum search will turn up a large number of previous discussions on the subject and a discerning reader can easily separate the wheat from the chaff regarding effective implementation of the stuff.

The salient points, in a nutshell: Acetone is an organic solvent, and will work only against organic deposits. This includes the #1 "contaminant" offender, PVC plasticizer outgassing reactions. You won't always know when the stuff is present; it doesn't identify itself clearly in the initial stages. This is why many experienced collectors (myself included) give every single raw coin we purchase an acetone bath.

Part of the decision-making process with acetone, though, is "Should I use it?" The surface of a coin under a crud buildup will not age at the same rate as the rest of the coin, and acetone will likely do nothing about the patina on the exposed places. Therefore, and this is relevant to any form of conservation, do you really want to expose "fresher" surfaces adjacent to more aged ones? That will end in a coin which has plainly been cleaned to the eye of an informed collector. Sometimes "don't touch it at all" is the smarter choice.

If your only interest is in arresting "contaminants" before they adversely affect the coin, acetone is probably the solution. The only real long-term threat acetone won't neutralize is Bronze Disease, and even that it will dehydrate and delay.

 

To me any kind of cleaning is a four letter word

 

@bocon007 I was in Athens 1967-1972. The gnarliest coin material I have ever encountered has to be tin, zinc or aluminum...pretty much powerless to do anything to these. Nickel is hard to deal with too.