1820 (?) Large Cent and a word about cleaning coppers

[West Jersey Detecting]

1822 (?) Large Cent and a word about cleaning coppers

I got out to one of my local sites yesterday after work with my friend Ed. The vegetation is filling in rapidly, but it was not impossible to swing a coil.

Within 15 minutes Ed called me over to check out a shallow dime signal. I went over and watched as he dug a Large Cent. As I began to walk away I got a deep dime signal and dug a Large Cent as well. The fact that these sounded more like a dime than a quarter told me that it would be in rough shape, which it definitely was.

I went on to dig a few pewter buttons and fragments. These buttons have a very low tone around the same as "cold rocks" (which are actually crystallized fertilizers that look like coal. You guys using White's detectors know what I am talking about). Ed dug a half cent and an unidentifiable King George copper as well.

The date on this one appears to be 1822 (typo in Topic title) and is my 5th Large Cent & 13th copper this year. I decided to leave it as you see it with only some minor thumb rubbing to bring out the detail. I cleaned all of my other coppers this year which were in similar stages of corrosion and as you can see, cleaning them only makes them look worse.

 

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[flakefinder]

I like fining those LC and Congrats, May I ask how did you clean them?

 

[Silver Searcher]

All depends how you clean them, and in what state they were when found, some are to far gone to do any good, but I would have thought that the large cent would be a candidate for cleaning.

SS

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

I like fining those LC and Congrats, May I ask how did you clean them?

There was a good post quite a while back on Cleaning Large Coppers. View it by clicking here.

 

[Giant056]

Nice score on the LC Niel olive oil, soap and toothbrush on many of the badly corroded coins is about all they can take, many times if you go any further anything you could originally see will be wiped out.

 

[matt092079]

Nice find. I found my first 2 large cents this year and thank the lord they were in great shape. I found a New Jersey copper and let me tell you, it looked better out of the ground then after I tried cleaning it(with just water). At this point I have done away with all cleaning methods if I see that there is good detail on the coin. I just use my thumb and spit...yes, spit. lol It doesn't harm the coin or make it look gritty or pitted.

 

[testing123]

Nice find Neil! I usually just throw a quick rub of mineral oil on them to see what comes out. I found a largie last year that came in as a dime signal and it turned out to be a beautiful 1812 classic head. Seems they come in anywhere from a wheat cent to a quarter

 

[ticm]

Good one Neil

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

You've been hot on coppers Neil, and glad to see you were able to add to your collection again. My coppers are usually in bad shape too from the fertilizer in the cultivated fields I hunt. Not much you can do with many of them, but a copper is a copper, and they're still fun to find regaredless of the condition.