Did I Destroy This Coin's Value?

to CCF. The coin is not a high dollar coin and since you did try to clean it took away most of the collector value.You could try soaking it in pure acetone and see if it get any cleaner.You can't really do much more harm to it anyway.As a general rule,never clean a coin.
John1

Since nail polish remover is basically acetone anyway and covered, it had zero value, you didn't do much harm to it's value.

Now that you know what it is, stop rubbing it, even with a swap. As John said try soaking it over night in pure acetone. That will clean what you can, without damaging the coin. 1896 is not a rare date, so even if it was without the black stuff, it is still only worth a couple of dollars.

to CCF.

Make sure to give the second picture a different name. Otherwise, you will
replace the original.
Have you got the second photo under 100KB?
At times, the image uploader gets 'funky,' but waiting several minutes before
trying again usually does the trick.

As damage is already done document what steps you used.
Would make a great cautionary tale on the pitfalls of cleaning.

It looks like that coin got the gunk on parts of it and then the rest continued to tone. If you soak it in acetone and no more of the gunk or dirt comes off, I'd just let it be and it will eventually retone over a couple of years.

Luster can not be restored on a coin. Once it is removed it is gone. If the luster is covered you can use distilled water or acetone to remove the gunk. Fingernail polish is usually not recommended because it has other stuff in it.

Fingernail polish remover in many instances contains all kinds of Stuff. Women need or want it to smell nice so manufacturers add STUFF to make it smell nice. IF the one you used is like this, that haze may well be from the STUFF in the remover. It would not be worth your cost to go to a hardward type store and purchase pure Acetone just for that one coin. However, check the bottle of the one you used to see if it is labled as pure Acetone. If not, that haze may be from the Stuff in the remover. Not sure if you have any Distilled water at home, but you could try soaking that coin in that. If not, not expensive so next time at a standard grocery store, look for distilled water. Usually about one dollar a gallon.
As most have already said though, this coin is not a really valuable one so spending excessive time and money is good for experimenting but not much for a final result, money wise. As noted it is not a good idea to clean coins but from the first photo, looked like not much of a choice.

I did a reply, which was quite long winded, but it didnt send, so heres a shortened version:

Heres an extreme version of a coin thats had an area protected that hasnt worn along with the coin. This is a coin, both pictures are the same coin:




I wont mention how this happened, I guess people could guess, but its one coin (not two stuck together) and its from a forum member. Its one of the only American coins I have floating about.

"I would have to say if you did not even know what you had, there was a problem before cleaning it. I would not say you damaged it, rather the person who encapsulated it the first time did. It is a similar situation to cleaning ancient coins, it simply had to be done, and the fingernail polish remover's acetone is one choice I might have tried. But, considering where you found it, you had no great loss of investment."

What I didn't say in my original post was that my investment was miniscule.

The box also included, among other stuff, a couple of Case pocket knives, some old jewelery, a couple pieces of sterling silver, and a 1950's era Zippo lighter in new condition. I paid 5 bucks for the box, so the coin was just gravy anyhow. With my new intense interest in coin collecting, it was the most special.