1839 Large Cent (Variety?)

Hi Superdog,

I would give it EF40 or EF45 for detail which is a pretty high grade for an early large cent. It may however have some problems. The color looks unnatural and the greenish residue around CENTS on the reverse raises a warning flag. That stuff might be residue from some cleaning compound that was applied to the coin and not completely washed off. Or, it could be corrosion that resisted an attempt to remove it. Either way, the coin looks cleaned to me.

The denticles are mostly missing on the obverse which could be due to damage. However, large cents are often soft at the rims so maybe it's just from a weak strike or worn dies.

I looked at the auction archives for Heritage and your coin is definitely not the "Silly Head" variety. It does match the "Booby Head" images so I'd say that is what you have. Those images also show weak obverse denticles so I guess that is characteristic of the variety.

Probably some of our copper specialists can offer more information on varieties.

Ok, thanks for the answers. What do you think I should do with the green spots?
It would be bad if the corrosion, or whatever it is, is going to move on.
And what is your opinion about the value? Heritage lists some cleaned XF for about 200 bucks...

Variety is N-11 (one of the Booby Heads) which is R-1 rarity (common).
If the green spots don't come off in an acetone or xylene bath, then they are verdigris, and that stuff won't come off.