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1858 Seated Liberty Half dollar found today - Clean it?

J

jdeiana

New member
I mentioned this coin in my post earlier under "Clean my best etrac find?" It is tarnished. I am new at this. Should I leave it alone? I found this today next to a large rock in my yard. I went over the same area with my pro coil and missed it somehow. I went out with the sunray x-8 today, and it rang out a nice solid tone. It was in among some buried barbed wired. Maybe the x-8 picked it out amongst the wire when the pro coil could not. I don't know. But I LOVED seeing this pop out of the hole. Only about 3 or 4" down.
 
I agree with Chris. I'm no expert, but you can see everything pretty well and I think that's what counts (to me anyway)!!! Thank you so much for the pictures. That's just a very, very nice find!!!!

NebTrac
 
i am going to leave it. i am finding out that is pretty much what you are supposed to do with old silver. what is it about old coins that is so freakin awesome? i can't put my finger on it.
 
My only seated half I ever found was an 1858 also. Mine came out of the ground heavily oxidized. The obverse had a different color then the reverse did.

I decided to clean mine, and was happy with the results. I know if I would have left mine the way it was, the oxidation would have gotten worse on the coin in time....oxidation when exposed to air will start to turn darker and darker. Yours doesn't look to have any heavy oxidation on it......I think it would be best, like the others have said, to leave it "as is".

Congrats on a GREAT find!! :super:

HH,
CAPTN SE
Dan
 
i decided to compromise - i left the seated liberty one alone - but i also found a 1912 canadian dime today about 40 feet from the liberty - that one was barely legible due the brown gunk all over it. so i decided what the hell - i'll polish that - i tried toothpaste and a toothbrush - it worked pretty good. the coin was actually in excellent shape under all the gunk.
 
I wouldn't clean it, but if you do, it is not a key date and I doubt you will ever sell it. So makes it look good to your eye appeal.
 
I sure won't tell you to get it wet under the faucet and with a dab of toothpaste carefully rub the oxidation off with the pads of your thumb and index finger. And I won't tell you to make sure you don't rub too hard but just enough to get the silver oxide off. Nope, I've never done that. lol. Ok, I have done that. If it's a common date and you want to clean it a bit. I think that's fine...though some will claim it is definitely not. If it were a key date coin worth a lot of money, then I would not attempt to clean it. I'd send it in to have it professionally cleaned, graded and slabbed.
 
It's a beautiful coin, and a great find!

If you are concerned at all about $ value, then I recommend that you do not clean it with toothpaste or anything abrasive. If you look at your toothpasted dime under a 20X magnifier, you will see the tiny scratches that cleaning left on the coin. That's what the person who sets the value of your coin will look for.
 
Thanks onemore - plus my dime is now white! glad i learned my lesson on a canadian dime - we can put a man on the moon - but we don't have anything to properly clean a silver coin without ruining it! there must be a way! must be.....
 
Beautiful! And it's all yours... so clean it or not! If it was me, I'd put it in a flip, write the date found and look at it from time to time.
 
On second thought I'd tumble that sucker with some clad pennies for about 86 hours!!!!!!:rofl::rofl::rofl::poke::stretcher:

NebTrac
 
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