Crying Tonight About The Coin I Lost Out On On The Bay Tonight

The reason for thinking it wasn't cleaned was that the surface of the fields is so uniform in color. Also, the major devices, the bust of Washington and the wreath in the reverse retain their detail. The texture of the devices and the fields is completely different, but the color is the same. If scrubbed with a brush, I would expect some of the same texture in spots on the devices and fields. But their surface textures are distinct.

Also, in my experience when stripping the oxidized or brown copper, in the past when I have tried this, the oxidation is never uniform. I always get light and dark patches. How do the cleaners achieve uniformity in color if scrubbing harshly, but still retaining the detail in the devices? For example the reverse wreath retains a lot of detail in the leaves which remain sharply defined and uniform in color. In a scrubbed coin, I would expect higher points to be lighter and lower points to be darker alongside more worn down details.

Thanks for helping me turn my mistakes into learning opportunities.

There are prominent lines that are common to this issue. These lines are striations that appeared on the original planchet. These were visible on both the G-VG and the VF specimens that I owned. Here's the info ...

http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/Col...Y.intro.html

That said, I concur with the harsh cleaning of the subject piece.

Here's a higher grade piece with matching striation lines ...

I don't think you lost that much. The coin was heavily cleaned with abrasives. If a coin is really valuable, it will need to be certified, and that one will never grade.

I'd move on and forget it.

Everyone is right, cleaned heavily, to the max.

Not crying as hard as I was last night when I was lost an auction for a salty front seam fixed bale McCord M1 helmet with a type 2 hawley liner on ebay... The auction ended at only $79, thats about $200 under what it shoudlve sold for

Yes, looks harshly cleaned unfortunetly, but hey at least you got really lucky and learned something

That Andrew Jackson Hard Times Token was actually a pro Jackson piece, not a piece that would have been making fun of him. There are far more anti Jackson HTTs than positive ones.

In the early 19th century depicting an authority figure as an emperor was usually a complement. Jackson's critics did often refer to him as a king, however.

@billjones ... I see this Jackson piece as satirical and by no means supportive of Jackson. Consider that Jackson's campaign medalets all picture him in military uniform. This Hard Times token portrays him in a toga ... Is this not satirical, anti-Jackson? The reverse legend compliments Jackson on his "glorious victories" in war and in peace. Jackson was undeniably a war hero. In reality, his peacetime victories wrought financial havoc that invited hard times. His waging of an economic war, in effect, was anything but a glorious victory. Jackson and his supporters saw the President as a man of the people, champion of the common man and surely not an emperor.

My readings suggest that the use of "emperor" for a president is anything but a compliment. Indeed, it was generally believed and was written about in 1835 that the comparison of President Jackson to a Roman emperor was what inspired an assassination attempt.

As regards the "Unity" coppers, I seriously doubt that President Washington would have been flattered by being compared to an emperor, crowned with a wreath.