I've been wondering how likely it is for Butyl gloves to leak certain chemicals out into my silver coins if I'm giving them an acetone rinse. I've read that Butyl gloves are the most resistant when in contact with acetone but I've never seen anyone discuss the topic when handling silver coins. I've been using Butyl gloves with acetone for my coins before and I'm just afraid there is a chance that chemicals from the Butyl have leeched onto my silver coins within the acetone solution.
Don't know but I would certainly test it with some junk silver. Maybe take a coin, dip it and clean it well with distilled water, dry and then dip in acetone using your gloves and leave it somewhere to see what happens. May take quite a while to satisfy yourself on the harm/no harm question. Alternatively, I just use acetone bare-handed. The exposure is very brief. But I make sure I don't have any open cuts or sores. I have used nitrile gloves with acetone and cold blueing solutions without any problems and those cold blues on guns have held up without problems for decades. Maybe check those out. You can get them by the box at Harbor Freight and elsewhere.
If you have to use gloves to handle coins in acetone, I would use nitrile gloves, and better yet, surgical grade nitrile gloves. Nitrile rubber is more resistant to swelling and leaching in acetone than butyl rubber. The surgical grades contain less/no extractable molecules than regular grades which is additional assurance that nothing gets deposited on coin surfaces. Like @Publius2 , I have never used gloves for acetone dips. Just my bare hands, which is not optimal. Acetone will dry your hands and is not good on open sores. Theoretically, you could also use plastic clip or tongs to retrieve coins from the acetone. Conceptually, polycarbonate tongs should be acetone resistant and not damage coin surfaces.
Theoretically: ONLY METAL TONGS ONLY with acetone. And keep your hands out of the stuff or you'll probably discover why if you live to old age.
If your body fat is over 10% and most people are , you are naturally forming acetone from sugars breakdown, so possibility of internal damage from acetone ( Unless you are a Diabetic (without medical control ) which can not break down the high sugars to acetone to breathe out. If acetone levels above the normal levels accumulate, it is changed to ketones which are more deleterious, but neither one is happy days ahead. But your skin with its keratin prohibits most absorption if not all unless you soak in it. I have often worked in organic labs with acetone for cleaning and dissolving certain bonding molecules. It can not dissolve metals ( copper or otherwise) IMO Jim
I apologize but I was under the impression that Nitrile gloves cannot resist acetone the way Butyl can, please correct me if I'm wrong! I've only used Butyl gloves + acetone with ancients, I've never done them with my old US silver coins I recently acquired. I guess I will hold off on on using my Butyl gloves and use wooden tongs for the moment.
I never need to put my fingers into acetone but it would not worry me if I did. I use shot glasses to give coins a bath.
