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 Replies: 13 / Views: 1,611 |
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New Member
United States
3 Posts |
I'm a newbie and, although they say never to clean from what I've been reading, this coin only cost me 20 bucks (Not on ebay) , so even if I ended up doing something to it to bring out details, I might consider it, but I'd like to get a few opinions first. First off, I was wondering if you could possibly identify what is on her hair on this coin. http://sdrv.ms/16iY9MwIf you save it to your computer and then zoom in some spots look black, but then again some look green. I was looking into that Verdicare product and thought that may be a possibility, but I don't know. Also, curious, but have you ever come across cases where the bottom portion of some flattened dates were tarnished really dark and once cleaned in some way they showed up more? I'm trying to figure out if that's what happened to this or if, in fact, the bottom parts of the numbers are really gone. Although it took a hundred different angles and lighting to see it, it looks like this is a 1797 cent. Any info. you could supply me with would be greatly beneficial. Thanks! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4897 Posts |
 to the CCF! That is a beautiful 18th century coin! I would advise against cleaning her. I would put here in the G4 range. Based on only the obverse pic. Can we see a pic of the reverse? Edited by amida17
05/26/2013 5:32 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
I agree leave her alone. Even if you got a date out of it it will look awful with the cleaned section and the rest of it being natural. That coin just screams history as is
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Valued Member
Canada
293 Posts |
First of all welcome Brighteyes1971.... I'm just new to this sight also, but I'm sure glad I found a site where there's so many helpful people. Secondly, I can't help in ID'ing it, and I usually like to clean-up my coins a bit, but I'd have to agree with the other posts that this one is just too nice to clean.
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New Member
 United States
3 Posts |
I'm just worried that whatever is happening to it will one day dissolve away the details, which is why I was leaning more towards that verdi-chem stuff. On the other hand, if it did take away the blackish-green on the hair, I suppose then I could be left with an abundance of reddish tones in that area and maybe no details left at all underneath. Then again, if I left it and didn't stop the process, it might not be around for any more generations. So, I'm sort of stuck pertaining to what I want to do. Anyway, here's the reverse. In person it's more of a brownish hue. It took forever to get it tilted right and the right lighting in order for it to show up on film. http://sdrv.ms/159axKy |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4897 Posts |
Quote:
it might not be around for any more generations She has survived 237 years.... I would not concern myself with "helping" her stay around. It is just that when a coin is conserved if you are not 100% sure about what you are doing you could do way more harm than good. Verdicare certainly would not hurt but it may not do much either. Give her an acetone bath and put her to bed. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
4078 Posts |
By Amida17 Quote:
Give her an acetone bath and put her to bed.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
As with everyone else, leave well enough alone. That coin has been around for a long, long time. If you want to preserve it even more, simply put it in a 2x2 flip, seal the ends with tape or staple in many places. Don't clean. Check it out every few hundred years to see if still OK.  Edited by just carl
05/27/2013 11:46 am
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New Member
United States
3 Posts |
Well, you're all probably going to want to kill me, but I touched it up a little. I left the left and right sides, upper portion, and reverse alone, but cleaned the figure up just a TINY bit to show a little contrast as well as the date a little so I could actually SEE the date. I'm stopping there. This was never for resale anyway. I just had to make it visually appealing for myself. http://sdrv.ms/12dxYWmI'm actually kind of glad I did. Because I thought this was 1797 but, in fact, it looks to be 1796. The only bad thing is that, once the date starts to darken back up again after time, it'll probably be hidden again because all of the years that passed and handling made it so that it's no longer raised. If this was something SUPER rare or of better quality I probably would've just done the acetate bath and stopped there. But since it wasn't, well, I had to give her a little bit of her dignity back. It's great knowing that it's a 1796. Or at least that looks like the funky 6's they made with these things. (I did a comparison on the net with better examples). That was the last year George Washington was in office as President. How cool is that? I SO love history! :) |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19942 Posts |
Personally, I would have left it alone. Now it looks cleaned, it was a LOT better before.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
I probably would have left it alone, at most an acetone rinse.
1796 S-102 R-4
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1511 Posts |
Obviously it's said and done, no reversing it now so no need to dwell on it. Its your coin and you can do, and did as you feel with it. And if you like it better that's all that matters. Personally though I agree, I think it looked better before.. But again, the only opinion that matters is yours. It's still an amazing coin with a rich history, the hands that coin has passed through, what it bought... If only it could tell tales! That's half the reason I love old coins so much.. O if they could speak...
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19942 Posts |
Quote:
Obviously it's said and done, no reversing it now so no need to dwell on it. Its your coin and you can do, and did as you feel with it. And if you like it better that's all that matters. While that may be true, us collectors need to consider ourselves as curators for future collectors. The coins we now own will someday no longer be ours as they will most certainly out live us. Lincoln Cent Lover!VERDI-CARE™ INVENTOR https://verdi.care/
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5205 Posts |
As you can clearly see 17XX I would have left it being happy that I owned a coin from the 1700's.
However it is your coin and if you are happy then so be it.
I wonder how many classic American cars that have been resto modded as of late will be shunned 30 years from now with people saying "why did they do that unreperable mod to that car" same as cleaning a coin when back in the day cleaning was the norm.
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Replies: 13 / Views: 1,611 |
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Posted 05/26/2013 5:59 pm
