The Key Date V Nickel project...

...WARNING! This post shows disturbing images of coin cleaning, rubbing, polishing and all kinds of forbidden acts! Anyway, I posted last weekend about my most recent hunt at my buddy's old house where I picked up a couple nice Indian heads and an 1886 key date V Nickel this trip there. It's been hot and my sugar has been a mess so I stayed in this morning and worked on the little display I'm planning for the finds from this great site. Decided that despite what the coin gods may say, I was cleaning up the V Nickel so it will at least show nice in the collection, value be damned! Since the coin was in the ground and took it badly, I wasn't worried about it having any value so my goal was too make it look as presentable as possible while losing as little detail as possible. I don't condone the cleaning of any possibly valuable coins! The first pics are of how it was shortly after coming out of the ground, and how it looked when I put it in a keeper and into the album. At this point I had rubbed it with my fingers and olive oil.











Showed it to a couple people in this condition and got the big "meh". The next set are after some finger rubbing with a baking soda paste. It's making progress, but we need to get a little more abrasion at this point. I use a squirt of Gojo pumice hand cleaner for tumbling clad and it works well, so I put a little in my hand and rubbed for a little. Saw good results. I changed over to a wet rag and buffed out with my finger until I saw what I wanted as far as cleanliness/detail loss. I don't want to use any chemical etching such as vinegar or anything on this coin so I can control how much wear it takes and avoid pitting. I learned this after working on some other nickels.







It definitely shows that it's cleaned but it also presents much better. So if I was cleaning anything else metal up I'd use polishing compound next. So I did. Cleaned up a little more, which I didn't really want, but it did provide a more even look, which I did want. Washed it off at this point and put on a little paraffin wax. It's waayyy too shiny, but I'll leave it out of the keeper for a couple weeks and handle it every day a couple of times, imparting a little dirt, body oils and dust. After this routine it will look like a heavily worn nickel...still.










Thanks for looking. Crucify me if you want. LOL. Remember though, these old nickels are pretty tough and I don't feel like I've lost much detail on this coin, at least not to the naked eye. Let me know what you think of it so far. I'll put up pics after it "ages" a little. Good luck and HH!