CoinTalk Member Describes Removing a 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar From an Acrylic Paperweight

This article is based only on posts in the CoinTalk forum thread "Removing a coin from a lucite/acrylic paperweight block." The source does not give the date of the posts. What follows are the posters' own statements and opinions, not verified facts.

A member called Mr. Numismatist wrote that they had bought a 1964 Kennedy half dollar in an acrylic triangle and wanted to break it out. The poster described the coin as Uncirculated.

The steps the poster described

1. Using a hand drill, the poster made a series of holes directly above the edge of the coin. They repeated this on the bottom, checking that the drill bit was not hitting the coin. 2. They cut grooves on either side of the block to connect the end holes, and also cut across the two sets of holes. 3. Using a hammer and a screwdriver as a wedge, they cracked the block in two with light taps. The poster wrote that the goal was not to force the screwdriver through, which could damage the coin, but to create tension and let the block break on its own. 4. The coin was still stuck, so the poster used the same process to split the half-block. 5. Finally, the poster removed the coin from the remaining chunk with a gloved hand, using light pressure and pulling.

How other members responded

The member physics-fan3.14 wrote that the poster had had a cool paperweight and now had a generic half dollar, and did not understand why. The poster replied that they enjoyed it more as a coin than a paperweight and wanted to see whether it could be done without damaging the coin. The member lordmarcovan wrote that it was worth more as a vintage paperweight.

The member SensibleSal66 wrote that the coin now looked scratched or damaged. The poster answered that the lines were all die polishing lines and could be seen in the first picture, taken while the coin was still encased.

The member alurid wrote that they had removed coins and paper money from lucite or acrylic blocks before, using a hacksaw to break the block into several pieces.

The acetone suggestion

Members also discussed dissolving the acrylic with acetone. alurid wrote that acetone will break down the plastic but that they found it a very slow and messy process. The member calcol wrote that pure acetone won't damage metal coins, but that they would not use it on colorized coins.

The poster put a medium-size leftover chunk of acrylic into a jar of acetone. The poster wrote that a few hours later they were left with a half-solid ball of plastic floating in a sticky, thick syrup, and concluded that they would not be using acetone to remove coins from acrylic paperweights any time soon.

Source: CoinTalk, "Removing a coin from a lucite/acrylic paperweight block."