Scared to clean this coin.. What would you do?

[nate7394]

Holy cow - that cleaned up REALLY well! I have a few toasty coppers (including a draped bust LC I found this weekend) that I've been too scared to clean, but now I might give it a try. Would you mind giving some details on exactly what you did?

Also, congrats on the Liberty Cap cent - that's a super-rare coin, and a real bucket list find!

Hello. I have found that the peroxide method only works with coins that come out of the ground with lots of detail remaining. It will NOT work on coppers that come out all thin with details that can easily be flaked off. If these coins are placed in peroxide, they will end up as blank disks because the little detail remaining will be dissolved in the solution. There is really not much you can do to improve the appearance in these cases.

Regarding the coin above, I could tell that this Liberty Cap still had a solid "base" underneath all the dirt buildup. First step I do is boil a little cup of peroxide. Next I dunk the coin for roughly 5 minutes. After I pull it out, I immediately start scraping the now loose dirt away with your everyday Q-tips. I find it helps to wet the end of the Q-tips with water prior to scraping. Don't worry about scratching the surfaces of the coin because you won't. Very last thing I did, after both surfaces were clear, was rub a little bit of Vaseline over the surfaces to make some of the "raw" parts stand out less. I'm doing this on my phone so forgive me for any sentence mess ups. Best regards

 

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[Cilykid]

That looks like what I dug up in small front yard with a plastic fork. Hey whatever works right. I dug up 2 quarters one like yours and a small diamond earring with a fork. I'm try to post pick if I dare clean it.

 

[coinman123]

I would leave it! I normally just try to clean my coppers with olive oil, my liberty cap came out of the ground way worse than yours, you are a lucky man. If you want you can try to look at my cleaning guide in my signature, it may or may not help.