Indian Head Penny

[coinshtr]

Hello all, At the risk of sounding a little or alot impatient, I was hoping that someone might offer a little help on how to clean a corroded IH Cent. The reverse is readable but he obverse is well corroded. Someone attributed the corrosion to the abundance of oak trees in the area that I found it. He said that oak leaves are very acidic. Anyway, it been soaking in olive oil for a few weeks. I want to catch the date on it obviously. I can wait if olive oil is the preferred method. No biggie there, But if there is a faster way, please advise.

 

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[Ocean7]

use toothbrush, baking soda and water. Make paste and scrub coin till patina comes off. Keep rinsing after a scrub and stop when a light green is present.

I've cleaned brown crud off IH's this way. Depends on how bad the patina is encrusted on coin.

Don't use on extremely valuable coins.

Good luck!

 

[jeff of pa]

it's probably too late to do what I do, because of the olive oil. When I find an Indian I cant read, I take my fingernail & pick the hard crust off the area of the date. You've already softend that up, and altho some Swear by Olive oil, Dish Soap Water, is all I use. next time, maby you wanna give this a try instead. GOOD LUCK; Jeff

 

[coinshtr]

Thanks for your help guys. I ran out and got a box of baking soda. My wife gets heartburn real bad and its hard to keep a box handy.
Anyway, I scrubbed on the coin for about 5 min. annnnnd Nothing. Didnt even touch the crud. I'll try some more later on if you think I should scrub more.

 

[kenb]

TRY ELECTROLYSIS FOR ABOUT SIX MINUTES THEN SOAK IN TACO BELL HOT SAUCE FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES!!!

 

[Shutterbug]

I've only found one old coin and that was an IH dated 1887. That's really old for Washington State. Anyway, I could plainly see the date and the penny was in really good shape except that it had turned that dark almost black color. I cleaned and cleaned but the dark color would not come off. I finally took some bon ami cleaner and scrubbed it good. To make a long story short... Some of the black color came off and so did the most of the date. For me, I've learned to live with the dark color. I think it's better to have the details on the money than to have a shinny coin that has no markings on it! A coin dealer told me that the coin is worth more in the dark color than to remove some of the detail of the coin.... especially if it's a valuable coin.

 

[treasurekidd]

Is electrolisys really ok to use on pennies? I have used it on a few silver coins with very good success, but I had heard that it ruined pennies and nickels. If anyne has experience using electrolisys on pennies and nickels, please let me know. I have a really cruddy V nickel and some wheaties I would love to clean up, but have been afraid to try electrolysis on them. Thanks!

 

[jeff of pa]

I'v NEVER had luck on Nickels...... . On Indians, I only put them in on 6 -7 second dunks, at a time. using a toothbrush inbetween dips to loosen also. another thing you can try , that has worked very well for me is any type of spray lube. while the penny is greasy from the lube, look at it sidewise in the light. sorta like spitting on a coin to see the date, but the lube seems to work better. and I don't think it does anything but conditions metal, so it should be harmless.

 

[coinshtr]

Boy I think I did it. First I used Baking soda method. I scrubbed for a while, about 5-6 min. I think it cleared a little of the green crud off. I put it back in olive oil until next night. Then I used vinigar method and soaked for about 30 min. then scrubbed with toothbrush. this method got a buch of crud off. Now I don't know it because removing all the crud it left the coin face severly pitted or was it the cleaning methods that pitted it. Righ now it looks horrible and even with a 10x eye loupe I still can't dicern a date. What I am doing now is setting it back in olive oil for a while because i don't want to ruin the surface anymore if I am actually causing it. Anyway thanks alot to all that responded. Maybe someday I will get to see a date, maybe not
cheers and HH

 

[chuckered]

My good buddy takes all ours and puts them in ultrasonic jewelry cleaner you can get them for about $30.00 even less at times at wally world [Wal-Mart] and they do A nice job on his and mine.