Colonial Copper Help(Pix Added)

minton7

Hero Member
Mar 28, 2007
981
17
south central ohio
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White's Spectrum XLT
I was hunting at an old homestead site tonight and found a copper disc about the size of a large cent. It is worn smooth as far as I can see.... but im currently cleaning it in hopes of seeing something.... it feels as if one side has a sorta raise to it.... but the other side is sorta sunk in.... or maybe just level in comparison to the other raised side..... it came up between 78-80 on my XLT..... it is green in color...... could this be a colonial copper ? Here are the pix..... as you can see... it is worn TOTALLY smooth.... what looks like an "0" on one scan is just corrosion.... the weight is .3 oz., which is the exact same as a large cent.... and the diameter is the same a a LC, but this coin seems to be thinner on the rim... I thought it could just be because it is worn.... I now think this is prolly a LC ......judge for yourself
 

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Re: Colonial Copper Help

I know on some coins, when the dates has been worn down to nothing, with a touch of acid the dates will reappear right before your eyes....Not too much.
Rd
 

Re: Colonial Copper Help

Well I will take a guess that with an oval on one side it could be a
Lower Canada Half Penny Bank Token
686983.jpg
686982.jpg

Just a guess. HH,
Donny
 

Re: Colonial Copper Help

Is there a knight on a horse rearing up, on the obverse?
 

Re: Colonial Copper Help

no no no ...... there isnt an oval shape in the coin... the coin its self has a raised side.... like one side is higher and the other side is sunken in just a bit...... the coin is worn TOTALLY smooth on both sides...... no detail whatsoever.......... I will scan it in a little bit then u will see for yourself
 

Ok now I see what you where saying ;D. Well I will look but that may be a wee bit too worn hehe. You can try cleaning it, there may be some detail under there or it could be a smooth disk. If it were my coin I would do an olive oil soak or electrolysis, probably the latter because I am trying to get more experience at electrolysis. Let us know how the cleaning goes.... and go slow. HH,
Donny
 

TUmble it!....tumblers will remove all the crap...and from there you will see whatever detail is left.
I don't advise soaking coins in anything...
 

Probably a Georgian.
 

Probably just a worn LC unfortunately, still a nice find! It would be possible to find a Colonial coin in Ohio. I'm from Ohio and have detected around one of the first settlements in Ohio from 1772, Schoenbrunn, found a button dating the site I am sure. I live in Germany now, about 100 miles from Moravia Czechoslovakia where the settlers came from and I have found several buttons very similar to it here. HH, Mike
 

azmetaldetector said:
TUmble it!....tumblers will remove all the crap...and from there you will see whatever detail is left.
I don't advise soaking coins in anything...

You would rather place a coin in a tumbler, than soaking?Why?
That would be a collectors nightmare.
 

djabend said:
Ok now I see what you where saying ;D. Well I will look but that may be a wee bit too worn hehe. You can try cleaning it, there may be some detail under there or it could be a smooth disk. If it were my coin I would do an olive oil soak or electrolysis, probably the latter because I am trying to get more experience at electrolysis. Let us know how the cleaning goes.... and go slow. HH,
Donny
I agree!!! I have been collecting coins since 76 and olive oil is the best solution with out distroying the patina and anything else.
 

I'm certainly not an expert, but I found a similiar round unidentifiable disk. It came out of salt water, and was in really bad shape- worse than yours. I've heard everyone say "don't clean coins", but it was so bad I didn't even know if it was a coin. So, I figured I'd rather try something and at least maybe figure out what it was. I tried electrolysis with water and baking soda, and I used copper clipped to the positive electrode instead of my usual steel. Actually worked! Enough corrosion came off to at least identitfy stars and the "bun" on a coronet type large cent. The back is even better with a clearly visible wreath and "one cent".

I'm sure I destroyed what if any value this cent had to a collector, but I'm not out to sell, it's priceless to me. And at least I know what it is now.

I left it in the tank for very short periods of time and lightly brushed the corrosion off periodically.

Hope this helps.
 

Personally, I don't like the results of olive oil, but it can't hurt a coin that is already a slug. On the other hand, I don't think it can help, either.

I would first try an aluminum foil rubbing. Take a smooth piece of foil and use your thumb or a pencil eraser to try to get an image onto the foil.

Another method I like to use is the "edit picture" feature of your photo editing program, such as Microsoft Office Picture Manager. I have been successful in some cases with the contrast adjustments, mid tones, brightness, etc. as well as color adjustments. sometimes changing the tint to red or blue or other colors will bring out details. You can always exit without saving the file if you don't get the desired results.

I also was able to identify one slug that I had almost give up on using a somewhat contraversal method I read about a while back on another forum. I was able to get enough detail using the method to ID it as a flowing hair large cent. I only recommend this one as a last resort, so use with caution! I repeat this again. ONLY USE THIS WHEN YOU ARE READY TO GIVE UP AND ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE AN UNIDENTIFYABLE SLUG! Take a fine grain sandpaper and lightly sand the coin, periodically checking to see if you can make out any detail.

I hope one of these methods helps. I wish I had a dollar for every unidentifiable "possible" colonial copper coin I have found over the years.
 

shakey said:
I tried electrolysis with water and baking soda, and I used copper clipped to the positive electrode instead of my usual steel. Actually worked! I left it in the tank for very short periods of time and lightly brushed the corrosion off periodically.

Yep that is the same system I use for coppers. HH,
Donny.
 

I found one like that this year as well. Here is what the coin will look like if you employ the olive oil/toothbrush/olive oil/toothbrush method. As you can see all it did with my coin is remove most of the patina...and I still cant see any detail. If anyone has a better eye that I do let me know what this is. Keep looking at that site and you may turn one up with more detail. Good luck
 

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Evolution said:
I found one like that this year as well. Here is what the coin will look like if you employ the olive oil/toothbrush/olive oil/toothbrush method. As you can see all it did with my coin is remove most of the patina...and I still cant see any detail. If anyone has a better eye that I do let me know what this is. Keep looking at that site and you may turn one up with more detail. Good luck

Yeap first picture shows impression of Georges head facing right, so has to be either Geo I or Geo III. You can make out the ribbon in his hair.
 

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