cleaning coins

[harvey261]

I am new here and im wondering how do you guys clean coins? My best coins so far are older coppers Large cents and today i found an old indian. How do you clean them? most of the ones i am finding i can barely see the date. ALso with my silver... my one merc its all pitted looking. I am using peroxid but im wondering if im not damaging them more of if the coins were just going to look like this after being in the ground for 100 years.

[Tony Two-Cent]

Harvey, there are many helpful tips in the Cleaning and Storage of Finds section of the forum.

Unfortunately, some coins are just corroded or pitted too severely to be helped much. In these cases, excessive cleaning will just make them worse and will result in loss of detail.

For my copper and nickel coins I use a wet wash cloth with some Dawn dishwashing liquid on it. I just rub the coins with the wet cloth and then rinse them off. If it is a nicer copper coin I will give it a coat of olive oil to preserve it. Some people also use renaissance wax for this.

On my silver coins, I never rub them because that will scratch them. I just hold them under the running water until most of the dirt is washed off. If there is any stubborn dirt remaining, I will dab them with the wet, soapy wash gloth, then rinse them off. For 99% of silver coins this will get them nice and clean.

[harvey261]

mine are coming outof the ground with dirt literally caked on them it seems. Today i found an indian (my first) and it took ten minutes at home to tell it was an indian. The reason im asking is that i see all kinds of finds on these forums that look like they just came out of grandpa's old desk, while the ones i find i do my very best to just get to where i can get a date!

[del]

Hello Harvey different soils and the coins composition will vary on what methods are best but the coins appearance will have the most influence on how much cleaning you should do. when you first dig the coin its damage is already determined , the dirt and grime just hide how much .the coin could be very pitted and rough to in great shape and anything in between because of the area it was found. i tell you this because some coins found can require very little cleaning to a lot of tedious time consuming work.

The hot peroxide is one of the most common and has some really good results on crusty coppers with least amount of effects on the coin. it won't damage the coin but will reveal any damage thats already been done to the coin. heres a typical large copper we would find here in Connecticut before cleaning .

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr228/del1786/2011/1850lgctfrontuncleaned1.jpg

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr228/del1786/2011/1850lgctreverseuncleaned1.jpg

very hard to tell how much damage it has but lucky it doesn't have the very hard green cement-like caked on dirt. from experience i knew it wasn't going to be that bad of shape because of the location i found it in , the area had pretty good drainage .

and here's the same coin after some hot peroxide and cleaning with a toothpick.

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr228/del1786/2011/1850lgctfrontcleanedslanted1.jpg

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr228/del1786/2011/1850lgctreversecleanedgood1.jpg

i focused on one side at a time , soaked the coin for a few minutes at a time and worked the crud off with the toothpick and repeated until i was happy with the results. if you look real close you can see some pitting ( obverse side more so because the coin was laying face side up and was expose to sitting water on it over the years) but i think its much improvement.

Dan

[harvey261]

Thank you very much dan. My two large cents are both much worse than that. One is nearly smooth with no date. The other i can barely get a date from. Its 1853. Every copper i have found there has pitting. Even the merc i found there has pitting. Its in a woods. Maybe this has something to do with it. I have found other coins in other places that arent as old that have no pitting. I wasnt sure if i didnt wash all the peroxid off and it caused the pitting or if i already dug them up that way.

[del]

Harvey , coins found near or in low laying places where water collects or stays moist and damp generally are much worse off condition wise. older copper coins found in parks and schools are usually not in great shape either because they would mix a lot of clay into the soil to hold in the moisture for the grass otherwise it can drain to quick and grass can dry out and burn quickley. farm fields usually have been treated with fertilzers and they really can kill copper coins too but there can be some exceptions to this rule. places with great drainage like a hill side or very sandy soil or places where theres a lot of natural lime in the soil (parts of New York state have some great soil and the coppers look non-dug) are the best places for great looking coins . don't get discouraged the crappier coppers are the ones to practice your cleaning skills on so you can preserve the better ones for your collection.

Dan

[ssserena]

I have (1)large cent on my 2013 goals I live in northern Illinois do I stand a chance or should of I not made that a goal I had a old 72 year old man told me today I don't stand a chance of finding one in northern Illinois,does anybody think hes correct.He said southern Illinois was developed before northern Illinois and if I want large cents I need to move to southern Illinois!

[ssserena]

he also added though chicago might produce some large cents but the problem is everything is paved shut so you would have to wait for a sidewalk tearout to find a large cent!

[ChrisinCT]

There is a tip somewhere on the forum about cleaning nickels with Worcester sauce.

It works great but be very careful not to over soak them. I ruined my 1:eyebrow:thinkingabout: V nickel that way. It removed every last bit of tarnish but also etched the coin which destroyed any value it had.

[harvey261]

SSSerana, i actually found my first large cent before i found my first wheat. This current site has now produced very very old wheats, an indian and 2 large cents. I have only been going about a month at this so i feel pretty lucky.

It is frustrating that these coins that im finding in this woods are in such poor condition. I dont care about value and im tempted to tumble them if that would help. The indian looks painted green, The large cents are pitted badly as well as the old wheats. The merc is even pitted. I have found a wheat in my yard and 2 others at old house places and they look like they had been in a desk for 50 years and not in the ground.

[ChrisinCT]

Harvey261 I would only tumble them as a last resort.
Try hot peroxide soaks first if that fails then its your call.

I found my long awaited first Indian head this past January ,it was coated green.
I placed about 1/4 cup of peroxide in a small glass bowl then put it in the microwave for 55 seconds then soaked the coin for 15 minutes., then repeated the process about 6 times changing the peroxide after the third cycle. the IH came out spotless.