1787 New Jersey Copper & Other Coins From The Ground

Please describe your cleaning process for getting the CT to come out so nice.

Very very nice digs! Electrolysis?

Guess you won't give away your hunting spots. but how about your method of cleaning those coins ? I'm drooling

Very nice!

Wow very nice finds indeed , best I've found in Texas is Indian Head penny's.

Thanks for all the comments Guys, as for cleaning methods it varies from coin to coin but after doing this for 25 years you get to know what will and won't work on certain coins. I had a lot of practice on the hundreds of King George 1/2 pennies I've found too Two things I learned over the years are no amount of cleaning will help a coin that doesn't have a solid surface under the crust and don't do any cleaning in the field to try to see a date or make an identification. There's a big difference between dug coppers and non dug in the thickness of the patina. On a non dug copper one or two wipes with anything and your down to bare shiny copper where a dug copper can be rubbed and scrubbed pretty hard and still keep it's dark surface color. The 1864 L Indian head was pretty crusty, don't have a before picture of it but I used several hot hydrogen peroxide soaks on it followed by some tooth picking and brushing with what's called a trachea brush. It's used in doctors offices and looks like a real small bottle brush with fine tight together nylon bristles. Next I use Never Dull magic wadding polish, it says it has petroleum distillates in it and is very good at removing the crust on dug coppers. After that, more brushing then I heat the coin enough to melt wax on it then work it in with thumb and finger for a good long while. The wax actually cleans the surface and smooths any rough spots. After that, another heating and a cloth wiping to remove any excess wax. The silvers are usually easy you just need to apply the rule of no field cleaning. I usually just soak them in water and rinse under the faucet letting the falling water do the cleaning, no rubbing or brushing. Sometimes you'll get a tough one like this 1833 Half Dime that needed extra help.


For this one I soaked it in a mild acid product called aluminum jelly and gently worked it in with thumb and finger to get the crust to turn loose then patted it with the never dull wadding until the color was evened out. now it was clean but too clean looking for my liking so I gave it an artificial antiquing.
I've got more of these before and after pictures and tons more dug coin pictures if you guys want to see them let me know.

SCDave , your cleaning method is unbelievable . totally outrageous. I have never seen dug coins look so good.
Please show us more !