1862 Half Penny - Additional Photos Posted

Lucky Cuss- yeah, it's really a shame about the verdigris. But if you like the coin, that's all that matters.

Yeah, it is amazing how little people care about UK coinage in the States. But, then again, that really is the case for nearly all non-US coins among collectors in the States. The major silver lining is that "darkside" coins can be remarkably cheap in the US.

Lucky Cuss- yeah, it's not a bad piece. And some of that green may be PVC or other gunk rather than verdigris. So, it's not at all a total loss.

Here's a good read on that:

http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-to-Remo...91989/g.html




As of right now, I've taken my usual very conservative approach, employing just hot water soaks and gentle working of the crevices with a soft wooden toothpick. The greenish stuff is very loose and greasy, with the coin surface underneath seemingly unaffected (brown patina and surfaces intact) so this may very well be something other than true verdigris.

After carefully taking the preliminary steps outlined above to get rid of the green crud, an oily film not affected by water remained on the entire surface of the coin. An immersion in acetone was effective in removing this residue. Several other coins I rescued yesterday suffered from the same affliction (which besides bronze coins also included cupro-nickel ones), so I'm thinking at this point that the state of them all may be owing to storage in close sontact with some sort of less than optimally archival material.

There may be a little more yet to be done to complete the conservation process for this coin, but it's pretty close to where I wanted to get it right now.