1858 Flying Eagle Cent - Try To Rescue It, Or Drill A Hole In It?

I agree that it is un-rescuable from a numismatic standpoint. Why not try to get some use out of it? If you do decide to clean and hole it, but sure to post some "after" pics to this thread!

@Bdlc, one of our members DOCC does fantastic restoration on the coins he finds. I'd suggest looking at a few of his posts for some tips. GL!

Haha. Would be funny to see how many 7-11s I had to go to before finding the one where the clerk would take it.

I collect Flying Eagles and I must say this is the most corroded coin I have seen. It is deeply pitted besides corroded. If you tried to sell it, you would be lucky to get a dollar. I play golf, so I would use it to mark my golf ball on the green. My fellow players would probably ask me what it was and then it would be a conversation starter. Good Luck.

My intention for considering a restoration attempt has nothing to do with value or wanting to sell it. My grandfather gave me this coin when I was 7 and said it came from the pocket of a Confederate soldier following the Siege of Petersburgh near the end of the Civil War in 1861. The pitting on the obverse was where it got hit by buckshot from a Union cannon. Yeah, that sounds real nice... let me write that down somewhere. I should submit it to PCGS and see if I can make it famous, it deserves that after all it's been through.

Can a Flying Eagle cent collection really ever be complete without owning this coin?

The colonial has a good chance at restoration from what the pictures show. Soak in Acetone for 24 hours (covered container). then soak in Verdi-Care for 24 hours. I tried this on a 1909 S indian head that I got when I was ten that I thought was just a 1909. After restoration the s appeared. I posted it 1 or 2 years ago in this forum. I am attaching before and after pictures. You can try this on both your coins. Good Luck!

Some use Xylene as a substitute for Verdi-Care. I have had such good luck with VC, the $20 purchase gives true conservation.

So here are the results of attempting to rescue the 1858 Flying Eagle cent, the 1787 Connecticut colonial, and a control group of 2 Lincoln cents. The process went as follows using a shot glass as a container inside a Ziploc bag to prevent product evaporation:
1) 24hr Acetone soak - gently swabbing and flipping coin every 6 hrs
2) 24hr Verdi-Care soak - same as above.

The 1858 Flying Eagle was slightly improved in both color and detail. The "Died in a Fire" look was replaced with a more natural very dark brown and subtle details were slightly improved. Most notably the beak reveal on obverse, and wreath detail to some extent.



Next came the 1787 Connecticut colonial. After the above process without satisfaction I added another 4 hours of Verdi-Care actually scrubbing both sides of coin vigorously with a stiff bristle brush. The worst of the green crust remains, and much of the device detail is now gone. Just a more destroyed version of a previously destroyed coin at this point.



As a control group I repeated initial process with 2 Lincoln cents I had lying around that were dark and had green crust. No before pictures but the result speaks for itself. Though color slightly improved the green crust still remains in the state they had initially. But what the heck is going on with the "LIBERTY" on the 1940-S, looks like each letter was hand-punched individually by a child.



My conclusion is that the Verdi-Care may have re-moisturized the coin somewhat restoring a more natural color, but it had little impact on the green crust. My results were nothing like the before after images on Verdi-Care's website, nor were they anything like has been posted here.