? about 1849 large cent

[redneckjimmy1980]

I found this nice 1849 large cent in a field that has turned up some other good stuff for me such as a union eagle breasplate,and a 1847 seated liberty dime. I dont know much about coins,but understand u shouldnt clean them at all? this one is in geat shape,but has some green corrsion on it a bit wear did eat into the coin just a little on the side of her head. rest is in great shape. hope yall can see a good pic of this and give me some advice on wht do do and what is possibly worth in its conditon. also i put a pic of the union eagle breast plate for yall to see.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Congratulations on some nice finds. I can speak about the coins. Most coins can be cleaned to admire and appreciate unless you have a very rare coin. Your dime can be cleaned with soap and water using your fingers to wash, you might even want to soak it for a while to loosen hard packed dirt. Your LC can even be cleaned somewhat but the green is natural corrosion from being in the ground and greatly reduces the collectors value of the coin. Again, soap and water and a toothbrush this time might improve it somewhat, but the green patina is now part of the coin. Value wise, the LC probably in not worth more than a couple of bucks in that condition and the dime is worth $17 on up depending on condition.

 

[redneckjimmy1980]

ok cool thanks ya the lc aint very rare so guess ill just clean it and keep it bein the first one i dug,so even the more valueale and rare ones u just clean with soap and watter?

 

[Larry (IL)]

Cleaning is a personal judgement and some relics for instance looks better and preserved by cleaning and treating. Coins on the other hand will always lose value by cleaning from a collectors point of view, but since I don't sell any of my finds, I will clean the ones that need cleaned for me to enjoy. You might find a rare coin one day and with those I am very careful about cleaning, but the others, I clean away. You might want to buy a coin price book or here is a site that has very accurate values for coins that you might find in the future.

http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/fmv.shtml

 

[Cajuncoinhunter]

Nice breast plate find. I've cleaned my brass finds (like that breast plate) with a little warm water,dishwashing liquid and a very soft toothbursh. Thats ALL i do. Let it dry and display it. I'm not into scrubbing down anything CW to include breast plates or buckles. Thats my opinion only on how I handle those things. Its all left to the holder. cch.

 

[redneckjimmy1980]

cool thanks yall for the info. does anyone know about what year that breast plate is? was it cival war or pre cival war?

 

[Chuckieo]

I just found one last week. You have a beautiful coin. You can see pics of it under the White's MXT forum. Entitled something like " First time out and first find" Mine was an 1854 penny. I will never sell mine. But I found out that they are valued from $18 to $200 depending on condition.

I used a couple drops of red hot saiuce on my coin and left it soak a few minutes. Then I wiped it off. It really cleaned it up, along with the patina. But I'm not selling it anyway so it doesn't matter to me if the green patina is there or not.

That's a nice find, the second one I heard about this week, yours and mine LOL

 

[nailfinder]

i clean almost all my coins unless they are rare or you plan on selling them but if you are going to keep them to injoy then clean away. great finds. i found an 1818 large cent that was holed and now my 11 year old wears it as a necklace.