1794 Liberty Cap Half Cent

B

butchey1122

Cellar hole freak
Found this sweet 1794 Liberty Cap Half Cent today. Out detecting an old Cellar Hole with "Foundation Hunter", found on a hill about 60 feet from the cellar hole.This is to date my rarest coin i have ever found. What would be the best way to clean this coin? if i should at all.
 

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Great find, It would be nice if you could clean it up looks like there`s a lot of detail still in it. Maybe let it soak in olive oil for awhile and wipe it with a soft cloth.
 
Thanks Robbie, I've had bad luck with soaking coins in olive oil. Need a better way to clean without damaging the coin especially a rare one like this.
 
Maybe gently with a soft toothbrush will help. It won't scratch the coin or damage it since it's copper.
 
That is a nice find indeed. The age old question.....to clean or not to clean.....I would be in no rush to clean it. Maybe just "dry" clean it a bit with a tooth pick.
 
Nice find! The details are all there. I would say leave it pretty much as is. From your picture it appears that on the reverse there is some flaking around the edge along the top left side. Half of the details may be in this material that even gentle of cleaning may break free and be lost forever.
 
GKman said:
Nice find! The details are all there. I would say leave it pretty much as is. From your picture it appears that on the reverse there is some flaking around the edge along the top left side. Half of the details may be in this material that even gentle of cleaning may break free and be lost forever.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with GKman. I've found one half cent like that and started to pick at it and sure enough the entire outer shell just fell off and there was no detail left on the coin whatsoever. And of course I didn't take a picture of it before I attempted to clean it! You can always decide to do something with the coin in the future....but you can't go back and un-clean it.

All this aside....great find! Congrats!
 
my first attempt would of to used a long distilled water soak followed by a few hours under a heat lamp to see if any of the crud will loosen up. If not then i might have tried the peroxide baths and tooth pick method.

I'm looking toward seeing your progress on this coin .
 
Great find! Color me jealous. There is never a guarantee with how well old copper will clean up. It appears to me that this piece might be significantly improved, but as GKMan said, you could loose all the detail if it's in the crust. Best thing to do is take your time and with a good magnifier really take a good look at the coin BEFORE you do anything.
 
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