I thought i would get the opinions of the experts before I commit this IHC to an acetone bath. It has some detritus in the devices which i would like to remove, but am concerned that some of the black or red spots it has may get worse. Thanks! Eduard
I don't seen anything on that coin which will be affected by acetone. On the other hand, it can't hurt. I pretty much always give my coins an acetone bath whether I see anything or not, just to remove organics that might be contaminating them. I definitely always rinse silver, and usually copper too (although I don't get much of that). You just don't want to rinse aluminum coins in acetone, as the results are not pleasant.
Do a search on the rose and thorn procees done by "Boss".....I have not ever tried this myself but some of the results look nice....Note ..I am not recommending this be done to the coin.....just making small talk
I have heard from a few of the Old copper guys not to use Acetone on copper. Why? I dont know but I follow that lead. I agree with Treashunt, Send it to NCS and let them do their magic on it...
I am a little concerned with the color and seemingly lack of luster for the grade. The acetone won't hurt the coin per se, but I think it is possible that it has been darkened by an organic/sulfur compound like Deller's to try and cover the reddish color. Can't be sure of course, but I would only use the acetone if I was willing to accept a possible outcome with an increase in the intensity of the discolorations. Jim
There's a CT discussion here called Acetone - The Magic Chemical http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t50698/
My answer above probably contains the reason for most of those comments. When silver is dipped, there is usually no obvious color change in the "silver" color itself, whereas dipping copper produces an abnormal pinkish/orange color that one could recognize as a chemical process. It was more common decades ago to use a chemical darkener to try and bring the color back within "normal". Most of the darkeners then were organic carriers and acetone would remove them, changing the color. If a person purchased a copper coin and used acetone and there was a change in color , they blamed the acetone rather than the coin itself. Jim
My experience with NCS is that they totally change the look of the coin and copper just does not look right when they are finished. I had them remove some crud from a gold coin which worked out ok.
Completely agree. Anyhow, you should always start with deionized water before using any organic chemicals. For copper, my first choice for removing organic debris is always xylene. I've NEVER had xylene produce ill effects on a natural copper coin. I've never had a problem with acetone either, but it's so polar I've found it doesn't usually accomplish anything on copper. One mistake people have made with acetone is leaving a coin in it too long or exposing the soaking coin to sunlight. This forms an acetate radical which will attack any metal and form verdigris.
Just a note of warning if you are using xylene or acetone... Be sure to wear an appropriately graded respirator for these materials let off serious vapors, even in small amounts, use in a very well ventilated space and respect the toxicity of these two materials to your health. Acetone MSDS: http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/A0446.htm Xylene MSDS: http://www.americhemsales.com/MSDS HTMLS/0196onnv.htm
Removing oils through the use of acetone/mek/xylene/etc. will often result in a non-reactive coin becoming reactive. Personally, I wouldn't do it with any coin I value. My advice for the OP. If you don't like the coin as-is, sell it and buy one you do like -- these are not hard coins to find and conserving copper is a crapshoot at best.
