Cleaning a possible good coin

olddude

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Richmond VA
We were hunting a new spot and my buddy found a coin and asked me to check it out and maybe clean it up for him. Normally the coins we find are the usual washed out large cent or V nickel type stuff. I could tell right away this one was a little different. At first I thought it was a half dime coin but after measuring it I saw it was to large so After searching some more I now think it is a half cent from the 1700's, 1794 possibly. After only tooth picking the surface I could make out some of the face details but no date. I decided to gently wash the coin with warm water and dish soap and once dried I could see enough of the face to narrow down my search to the 1794 half cent. I still cant pick out a date but some of the liberty is starting to come through on the face. I can see on the back enough of the wreath pop out that I'm pretty sure the coin is what I think it is.

The question is what else could I use on an all copper coin to at least get a date. There were two different types of these coins and I think this one is what they call The High Relief type which tends to make the lettering a lot thinner and now harder to read. I tried to take a couple pics but they didn't turn out to well but I'm going to try to take some more in better lighting when I can.
 
Careful tooth picking and rub with your finger is the best I have used.

Hints on taking pictures:
1- use a plain background so the camera only focuses on the coin.
2- lots of light and adjust coin to ligh angle for no glare and best contrast of coin's features.
3- do not get the camera too close since most cameras have a Minimum distance they will focus to.
4- If the coin does not fill the frame and looks too small, then open in Paint and crop the picture. Almost all current cameras have more than enough pixels so reducing the frame still has plenty of details.
5- take more than one photo at different distance and angle. Deleting bad pics is easy.

Good luck and waiting to see a photo of his coin.
 
I still don't have but a couple pics none of them turned out to good but i'll put this one up just for grins.
 

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As waltr stated:

Careful tooth picking and rub with your finger is the best I have used.

Hints on taking pictures:

3- do not get the camera too close since most cameras have a Minimum distance they will focus to.


Good luck and waiting to see a photo of his coin.
 
Definitely a liberty cap.

I can see that this one is the no pole version and can see part of the liberty. I don't think the coin is all corroded out and most of the lettering is still in there and just needs to be uncovered. I can't in good conscience go any farther in trying to get a date. I have been looking around for a service that does this type of work but don't want to have to mortgage the farm just to get one of them to talk to me about it. What would you suggest as far as getting it professionally cleaned and where?
 
Avoid water on coppers


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Well it's already to late for that. I searched all over and most everybody said mild tooth picking then wash in hot water with mild dish soap rub gently between fingers to remove loose dirt. That's what I have done to get as far as I have but once I saw what it might be I dried it off and haven't done anything else to it. What's your thoughts on what the next step should be?
 
Here's a couple more shots that are a little better.
 

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Well it's already to late for that. I searched all over and most everybody said mild tooth picking then wash in hot water with mild dish soap rub gently between fingers to remove loose dirt. That's what I have done to get as far as I have but once I saw what it might be I dried it off and haven't done anything else to it. What's your thoughts on what the next step should be?


Andres pencils... but given the value of liberty caps I would send it to pcgs for cleaning and grading


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Here's a couple more shots that are a little better.

Looks like that's about as far as you're going to take cleaning it. Nice coin!

I don't use water on copper unless I plan to tumble it. Case by case. I wouldn't tumble that coin!

As far as photos, many cameras struggle to focus up close. Fortunately, they are usually capable of high resolution. That means you can back off a bit to get a sharp focus on the coin, and then either use the digital zoom or just crop the photo afterwards. Same difference, really. That can result in a better photo than trying to hold the camera 3 inches away from the coin. Also, use natural light. Go outside or stand next to a window. It's also tough for cameras to get the exposure correct (brightness/contrast) when you have a dark coin on a white background.
 
Looks like that's about as far as you're going to take cleaning it. Nice coin!

I don't use water on copper unless I plan to tumble it. Case by case. I wouldn't tumble that coin!

As far as photos, many cameras struggle to focus up close. Fortunately, they are usually capable of high resolution. That means you can back off a bit to get a sharp focus on the coin, and then either use the digital zoom or just crop the photo afterwards. Same difference, really. That can result in a better photo than trying to hold the camera 3 inches away from the coin. Also, use natural light. Go outside or stand next to a window. It's also tough for cameras to get the exposure correct (brightness/contrast) when you have a dark coin on a white background.


Agreed, I like the “magnify” app on iOS... you focus then u can zoom in or invert the image
dbe7c638e7055be26818c527d4bac102.jpg



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Please don’t take what I’am going to say personally. People often find coins that are less common or rare that have been buried for several hundred years . In general coppers , especially early colonial coppers and early US coppers simply do not hold up well after being buried for two hundred years.Having said that I agree with the poster who said you’ve likely taken it as far as you can . The fact you’ve gotten a coin to the point you can ID it is great.
So why mess with when the likelihood of messing it up are very possible. Why spend money having some “expert” clean it and have to pay someone to ruin it?
My two cents is enjoy it like it is ; it’s a neat coin. Even without all the environmental damage it is in poor condition and probably at best is worth a couple hundred bucks on a great day.
As the farmers say “ You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”
 
Please don’t take what I’am going to say personally. People often find coins that are less common or rare that have been buried for several hundred years . In general coppers , especially early colonial coppers and early US coppers simply do not hold up well after being buried for two hundred years.Having said that I agree with the poster who said you’ve likely taken it as far as you can . The fact you’ve gotten a coin to the point you can ID it is great.
So why mess with when the likelihood of messing it up are very possible. Why spend money having some “expert” clean it and have to pay someone to ruin it?
My two cents is enjoy it like it is ; it’s a neat coin. Even without all the environmental damage it is in poor condition and probably at best is worth a couple hundred bucks on a great day.
As the farmers say “ You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”

And I'm going to ask you the same, please don't take this personally.....

A 1796 Liberty Cap Half cent with no pole is, in just G 4 condition worth $37,156. From what I understand PCGS will clean and grade a coin for 300 +1.5 % of the graded value. They will do just cleaning for between $75 to $100 + shipping. I think it would be worth it to me to spend $100 to find out exactly what is there because even one of these coins in poor shape is worth Four or five hundred dollars.
 
And I'm going to ask you the same, please don't take this personally.....

A 1796 Liberty Cap Half cent with no pole is, in just G 4 condition worth $37,156. From what I understand PCGS will clean and grade a coin for 300 +1.5 % of the graded value. They will do just cleaning for between $75 to $100 + shipping. I think it would be worth it to me to spend $100 to find out exactly what is there because even one of these coins in poor shape is worth Four or five hundred dollars.


Definitely worth it, not like it’s a common Washington quarter lol


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And I'm going to ask you the same, please don't take this personally.....

A 1796 Liberty Cap Half cent with no pole is, in just G 4 condition worth $37,156. From what I understand PCGS will clean and grade a coin for 300 +1.5 % of the graded value. They will do just cleaning for between $75 to $100 + shipping. I think it would be worth it to me to spend $100 to find out exactly what is there because even one of these coins in poor shape is worth Four or five hundred dollars.

No problem. You said it was a 1794 and you really can’t see a date. If that is the case then a right facing liberty cap in good condition would value around 500 - 600 dollars . However yours isn’t going to grade that high. It would come back actually from PCGS or NGC as “ Environmental Damage” and if date is not clear that is an issue. That is why I said to a half cent collector your coin would maybe value several hundred dollars. It would be better for a type collector who wants one example of each of the US copper coins .
Now if it is a no doubt 1796 right facing liberty cap of which their are several varieties; one of which values at $600 in good condition ( much more common and likely what you have) . If you do have a 1796 right facing that is a rare variety , it is valuable . However while valuable it would still be a great coin but no where near the value you mentioned given the condition as your coin does not grade “good”.
So as a coin collector of many many years of US coppers my two cents is I wouldn’t pay money to have it professionally graded. And besides being slabbed with an Environmental Damage imprint it will also be cleaned ; neither of which are good for any coins value.
Nice find however. Save your money and love it like it is.
 
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No problem. You said it was a 1794 and you really can’t see a date. If that is the case then a right facing liberty cap in good condition would value around 500 - 600 dollars . However yours isn’t going to grade that high. It would come back actually from PCGS or NGC as “ Environmental Damage” and if date is not clear that is an issue. That is why I said to a half cent collector your coin would maybe value several hundred dollars. It would be better for a type collector who wants one example of each of the US copper coins .
Now if it is a no doubt 1796 right facing liberty cap of which their are several varieties; one of which values at $600 in good condition ( much more common and likely what you have) . If you do have a 1796 right facing that is a rare variety , it is valuable . However while valuable it would still be a great coin but no where near the value you mentioned given the condition as your coin does not grade “good”.
So as a coin collector of many many years of US coppers my two cents is I wouldn’t pay money to have it professionally graded. And besides being slabbed with an Environmental Damage imprint it will also be cleaned ; neither of which are good for any coins value.
Nice find however. Save your money and love it like it is.

Yes I know I said it was a 1794 but That was before I did a little more looking. From what I understand the 1794 coins didn't have a no pole version. I may possibly be wrong on that though. There was a no pole version in 95 and 96 along with a couple other varieties also. So given that It could be a 1795 or 1796, I could find no, no pole version in 1797.

So yes it could be a 1795 or 1796 from what I am looking at. The 1795, no pole version is not as rare as the 1796 year coin and yes only worth $507.00 in G (4) condition. You are right it's not worth anything unless you can pull a date off it though. I do think the date is still there it's just a matter of getting it to pop out. I can see some of the 7 and a little of the 1 but the rest is still hiding.
 
Yes I know I said it was a 1794 but That was before I did a little more looking. From what I understand the 1794 coins didn't have a no pole version. I may possibly be wrong on that though. There was a no pole version in 95 and 96 along with a couple other varieties also. So given that It could be a 1795 or 1796, I could find no, no pole version in 1797.

So yes it could be a 1795 or 1796 from what I am looking at. The 1795, no pole version is not as rare as the 1796 year coin and yes only worth $507.00 in G (4) condition. You are right it's not worth anything unless you can pull a date off it though. I do think the date is still there it's just a matter of getting it to pop out. I can see some of the 7 and a little of the 1 but the rest is still hiding.

Hey don’t get me wrong; you found a cool coin. My experience tells me it doesn’t make sense to pay the price to get it professionally dated . As I said your coin doesn’t even grade “good “ and likely would not even be assigned a grade by either grading service.Thats why I gave you my opinion on its value and Iam probably being generous.
If I found that coin I’d be thrilled and wouldn’t part with it even if it were mint state. If you really want to get professional input for free bring it to your local coin shop or go to a coin show and have several different dealers give you their opinions. You’ll learn a lot without costing you anything.
 
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