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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[Don in SJ]

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

Peroxide and q-tips and finished with coat of bees wax buffed out.

 

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[Silver Tree Chaser]

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.

Don - I think your coin is much more interesting now that you've found clear evidence of a long ago attempt to cut the coin for very small change. It tells a story. It represents someone's actions - a moment frozen in time from long ago. Plus I couldn't help to think of it as a coin sent by Vito Corleone - "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." The chisel mark matched up perfectly with the severed horse head in the bedroom scene from the Godfather. Glad to see you getting out. How many cut NJ Coppers have you recorded in all your research?

 

[Don in SJ]

Don - I think your coin is much more interesting now that you've found clear evidence of a long ago attempt to cut the coin for very small change. It tells a story. It represents someone's actions - a moment frozen in time from long ago. Plus I couldn't help to think of it as a coin sent by Vito Corleone - "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." The chisel mark matched up perfectly with the severed horse head in the bedroom scene from the Godfather. Glad to see you getting out. How many cut NJ Coppers have you recorded in all your research?

8.5 cut coins, the .5 being the one we are talking about. Yes, it tells a story, but for my collection it will be an outsider from all my other coins, since it will fit in neither my 2x2's or in a display case unless I make one up with a deep shadow box, but then you really cannot see "the story". I will mull over this for awhile, kind of busy right now with finishing up the NJ circulation article after 12 years of data. But the coin if it can be straightened will still tell a story with the nice chisel mark being more viewable if flattened out. It is nice to mull over having such a coin. Don

 

[Scrappy]

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

Don - I think your coin is much more interesting now that you've found clear evidence of a long ago attempt to cut the coin for very small change. It tells a story. It represents someone's actions - a moment frozen in time from long ago. Plus I couldn't help to think of it as a coin sent by Vito Corleone - "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." The chisel mark matched up perfectly with the severed horse head in the bedroom scene from the Godfather. Glad to see you getting out. How many cut NJ Coppers have you recorded in all your research?

I keep coming back to see it again and again. I can imagine a chisel or a splitting wedge being pounded against the coin which was atop a log. It probably kept getting pounded deeper causing the sides to bend up, and eventually the people doing the splitting laughed and gave up.

 

[A2coins]

Nice finds I would set something heavy on it I would place a rag on it and let it over tome bend back. Or wrap coin in cloth put in vise slowly put pressure on it a little more every day till its flat. Just an Idea