First hunt in a long time for me met with success especially for my favorite coinage

[Don in SJ]

It felt good to get out in the woods after a long hiatus from detecting and I did some research in hopes of finding a new site and did find a small one that did produce some relics and coins. Right away next to the depression in the ground I got a beautiful coin reading and a 1816 Large Cent emerged, not too deep (4-5") A little bit later I got a second coin reading and that was the holed 1801 Draped Bust Large Cent, that was rather deep (8") My third coin reading was not as deep but I was disappointed to see it was a Wheat Penny (1909 at least). As I backtracked over the same area over and over, (logs and brush at the site) I got my 4th coin and this one brought the happy face to me, I have been waiting over two years plus to find my "2 dozen" NJ, and yes it was my 24th NJ copper found in my detecting career BUT, bent like as Dave W said a "TACO". At least it was identifiable by variety, so it is a 1787 Maris 6-D variety, a common variety and my second of that type.

I cannot put the coin in my display book, so I really would love to try and straighten the copper, but other than finding how to straighten copper out (not coins) on the internet, I am looking for anyone who might have tried it with success. From what I have read, if I heat the copper up and then cool down, it anneals the copper making it easier to very slowly start to straighten out the coin, and the process of heating and cooling to be repeated several times and to go slowly working with wooden dowels to gradually straighten. I may go this route but again, looking for advice on trying this.
Don

 

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[Silvermonkey]

Some nice old finds. Congratulations. I would say your research paid off. Wouldn't you love to know how that NJ copper came to be bent.. I would leave it just as it is. HH

 

[Don in SJ]

I am sure the coin was bent with pliers while trying to break the coin in half to use as a "Half" cent/penny. I do not want to leave it "as is" since it will end up not with my other coins in the collection.

 

[digging440yrs]

Nice finds !

 

[Steve in PA]

Nice finds Don. Good luck straightening the copper.

 

[Don in SJ]

Steve. always love a challenge and hope I can do it without it breaking in half, but if it does, at least then I can put it in a 2x2 . Hey, I did that Dag a few years ago and this should be piece of cake compared to that restoration. I have also considered sending it away to one of the relic restoration fellows, but not really worth doing that.

 

[doninbrewster]

Nice going Don. You must have hit that Jersey pretty hard with your shovel to bend it in half :-) All kidding aside, it's nice when you can pull a variety and get that little break at the bottom of the shield so you can ID it so easily. Then again, it would be nice to have the date under plow beam to make the ID easy.

 

[EasternShoreMetal]

Very nice finds! If that coin is potentially valuable, get a professional to tell you what can be done or if they will do it.

That coin looks really sharply bent.
I try and straighten out some things, if I think I can get away with it. Most times I can, sometimes I fail.
Here's my tricks for something that thick.
1. Clean it really well. I don't mean for color, but to get the dirt out of every nook and cranny. I use an ultrasonic cleaner to get every pc. out.
2. Check the metal with a magnifier. If it is cracked at all at the bend, or you can see stress on the thickness of the coin at the bend, chances are it'll break if you stress it further.
3. I work with metals a lot, so I might heat it with a torch. If you don't do this often, don't use a torch.
Don't heat it so much the metal changes color, you may lose your coin altogether.
4. Heat it instead in an oven, it won't get hot enough to damage the metal.
5. when it's pretty hot, say 400 degrees, I place the metal between two thick pieces of leather (thick as a belt) and place the whole thing in a vice that will slowly open it back up,
(Ideally, both sides at the same time) (There are several ways to accomplish that) PM me if you're interested.
6. WATCH it closely! If the stress of straightening begins to crack it in the least, you're done. If not, do this very, very slowly, giving the metal plenty of time in between turns on the vice.

The secret here is patience. You can reheat and bend it a fraction of a mm at a time.
If the metal is already cracked, forget it.
If it's brittle or flakey, forget it.
That one looks very sharply bent, that may be a stopper as well.

If you try it, good luck! and let me know how you do.
Chris

 

[joeyfresh]

Glad to see you out detecting Don. I agree with ESM, what ever your plan is don't go with super high heat as that will seriously alter the composition of the coin and make it really brittle as it cools. Good luck!

 

[bill from lachine]

Good score on the old coppers....perhaps the copper was bent as a love token were made that way without the inscriptions.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Terry Soloman]

Great hunt - Congrats!

 

[trapperart]

Very nice finds congrats

 

[UnderMiner]

Nice super old LC's!

 

[Jyverb64]

Congrats on the NJ copper, it's so nice to be rewarded when you haven't been out in a while

 

[Don in SJ]

Prior to trying to straighten the bent NJ copper, I experimented on a 38mm severely bent button. The button was bent so far the ends were touching each other, so a bit more bent than the NJ but overall I was successful on getting it rather straight. It did lose some of the patina that peeled off during the straightening process.
So, I then was going to proceed with trying to straighten the NJ copper, but first wanted to carefully look to see if it was cracked at the inside bend. I used a few Q-Tips and uncovered that the coin was struck with a chisel to try and break in half and evidently than they tried with pliers to finish the job but failed or dropped and lost it before they could finish. With the deep chisel mark in the coin I am now on hold in my decision to try and straighten or not.

 

[Scrappy]

That coin is just getting cooler by the minute. Chisel marks and pliers give it a personal touch that's 220+ years old. I know you didn't ask, so I hope I'm not being intrusive by saying it looks good as is...if it were mine.


Congrats again Don!

 

[against the wind]

Sad to see an old coin like that get intentionally destroyed.
Congrats on a sweet hunt.

 

[metalev4]

Good digs Don. I bet you will dig another straight one eventually. Kind of cool that someone spent that much time trying to cut such a small denomination coin in half. Anyway, good digs.

 

[nova treasure]

Glad to see you got out Don and able to add another NJ copper to the collection. Bill

 

[IndianaHunter27]

Just out of curiosity what method did you use to clean the coppers and wheat penny?