✅ SOLVED At first I thought it was an Indian Head penny .. but what is it really? Any ideas?

[creskol]

It's pretty toasted, but there may be enough detail for somebody to be able to ID it.

It measures 19.05 mm in diameter

Thanks!

 

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[foley72]

I think you're right. Looks like an Indian Head penny to me.

 

[creskol]

Facing the wrong direction for an IH I think .. Here is a side by side comparrison with an IH I recovered from the same location.

 

[southerndata]

Its either a greek or italian coin. Where did you find it?
the legible "erice" is a town in Sicily which minted it's own coins. This appears to
be ancient greece.
History of Erice

 

[creskol]

Its either a greek or italian coin. Where did you find it?
the legible "erice" is a town in Sicily which minted it's own coins. This appears to
be ancient greece.
History of Erice

Thanks for the tip .. I will check into that possibility. It was found in Eastern Maryland.

 

[FCCDFEd]

Try a hot peroxide bath then clean gingerly with a qtip. I had an IH the other day that was unable to ID the heads side and date. Worked great. I'll try to find the instructions here in the cleaning section.

 

[Red James Cash]

Good find,ancient coins,and relics,have been found in many places in the east.Celt,phoenician,Roman,viking.

 

[FCCDFEd]

I posted this last year on the forum, not sure if Jeff saved it or not, but anyway here is my procedure again. I must stress, I have been doing it for several years now and started on a lot of buttons first, but what convinced me it was good when my son did it on his super rare 1785 Vermont Immune Columbia coin which we thought was toast and it came out more recognizable once cleaned with the Peroxide.

Some Coppers just cannot be cleaned and not lose detail for the simple fact the corrosion has already damaged the coin beyond hope and for those who say the cleaning lost the detail are correct, except it was the deterioration of the coin from corrosion that did it, the cleaning just took away that corrorsion.

OK, nuf said on that, here are the procedures:

Directions for the Cleaning of Artifacts/Coins using Hydrogen PeroxideRequired items:

1 - Disposable plastic bowl – I use an empty margarine container
ADDED: - I now use a harder plastic container that can go into the microwave

1 - Bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide which is 3% H2O2


1 - Heat Source – I have a gooseneck lamp with a halogen bulb in it.


1 - Box of Cotton Swabs – Q Tips are the best – others fall apart too easily

Make sure the artifact/coin is free of any oil coating like olive oil if you previously had soaked this object. The oil coating prevents the Hydrogen Peroxide from working on the dirt.
Put object to be cleaned in disposable plastic bowl and then pour Hydrogen Peroxide on top until it is at least a half an inch above the object to be cleaned.

Using the lamp as a heater, I position the lamp to within 2-4 inches of the bowl. This heats up the solution. Be careful not to cause anything to melt from too much heat, use common sense for this part. A Heat Source is NOT necessary, but it does speed up the cleaning significantly...

ADDED: YOU CAN USE A MICROWAVE TO HEAT THE PEROXIDE UP FIRST, BUT BE CAREFULL AND PLEASE USE A SAFE CONTAINER WITH NO METAL IN IT, PUT THE RELIC/COIN IN AFTER THE HEAT UP IN THE MICROWAVE!!!!!
If the solution is hot enough the boiling of the Peroxide should be very evident to you and should remind you of a geyser. Once it is cooking it sprays the bubbles and smokes a little also. This should continue for anywhere from one hour to two or three.

Periodically remove the object if you want to check on the progress. I usually then lay it on a napkin and take a cotton swab and start to gently rub and see how much crud is coming off the object. It might take several hours or more to get real clean. You might even have to repeat the entire process if the object has a lot of stubborn crud on it.

When the bubbling of the Peroxide stops the cleaning also is done. If it needs more cleaning start over again with fresh fluid.

Keep your cotton swabs wet with the Peroxide while gently rubbing, this will prevent scratches.

When done with your cleaning, rinse the object well with water.

The first coin I did with this method did not require any rubbing whatsoever. I believe each artifact/coin is unique in how it is cleaned. Some did not clean up hardly at all. If it is a corroded object, like a pitted, green Indian Head, I don’t think anything you do will help that.

My best advice is to experiment on non-valuable objects first and then move on to your better finds once you build confidence in what you are doing.
This was cut and pasted from a post I searched recently:

The objects may appear dried out after cleaning, if you want you can coat with a coin preservative like Blue Ribbon Coin Conditioner and Preservative or a similar product or even a light coating of Vaseline.

Don in South Jersey

 

[MadMarlin]

Looks like the reverse of a Half Cent.

 

[creskol]

I posted this last year on the forum, not sure if Jeff saved it or not, but anyway here is my procedure again..................

Don in South Jersey

Thank you for the information .. I appreciate that!

 

[RelicHunter97]

...am I the only one that sees its an upside down Indian head? Try turning it 180 degrees

 

[creskol]

See the side-by-side comparison above.

 

[FCCDFEd]

Just a clarification and to give due where it is due, this is a paste and copy from a search I did recently to clean an IH I had found. This was copied and posted from Don in South Jersey. Not sure of date of post, but the prodcedure worked great.

 

[RelicHunter97]

I saw that, if you rotate the left "mystery coin" 180 degrees you will see that it is, in fact, an IHP looks like an 18_4.

 

[creskol]

Just a clarification and to give due where it is due, this is a paste and copy from a search I did recently to clean an IH I had found. This was copied and posted from Don in South Jersey. Not sure of date of post, but the prodcedure worked great.

Thanks for the clarification .. and thanks for sharing the method. Thanks to Don for passing it along. I appreciate both efforts!

 

[creskol]

I saw that, if you rotate the left "mystery coin" 180 degrees you will see that it is, in fact, an IHP looks like an 18_4.

I think you are right, Sir! I looked at this thing a million times .. and at first I thought it was an Indian Head, but then my mind and eyes started playing tricks on me. Thanks for slapping me back into reality!

Below is another photo of the rotated coin with a bit of photoshop enhancement.