How to clean this up: any ideas?

[Old Katz]

joe dirt_1 was right when he said the unknown looked like an Indian Head. Its
my frist but its in bad shape. I let it sit in vinegar for awhile then took baking soda to it
with a kids tood brush and cleaned some of the junk off. Its still in rough shape. Maybe I should
just forget about it. Threr's probably more at the site I've been working.
Katz

 

[born2hunt]

O.K.,
The first I.H.'s I found, five of them, I tried to clean and regreted doing so. Once a copper coin starts to corrode, cleaning it will only make things worse. One of mine was an 1873 and after cleaning it the date was ureadable because I cleaned off all of the corrosion which usually attacks the raised lettering first.

My advice, go find one that's in much better shape, preferably a '77. Soaking it in olive oil probably won't help much but it won't hurt either. By just wetting it with oil and holding it at different angles to the light you might be able to get the date but it looks to be pretty corroded. Good luck & Great find.

Steve

 

[RickIowa2009]

Great find

 

[Uncle Willy]

Try kerosene, diesel fuel, fuel oil. Let it soak a few days.

Bill

 

[Waterdog]

I heard something about putting a coin on a flat scanner. Then try and get a better image on computer

 

[Old Katz]

Hi Waterdog:
Thats what I did. I put it on the flat scanned. When wet, the date reads 1901
Katz

 

[Roscue2]

n/t

 

[Uncle Willy]

I send all my photos via scanner. Piece of cake.

Bill

 

[dahut]

Its obvious from the pic that it is a 19XX IH. There are two IH's in the 19XX date range that are noteworthy:

1909-S, RARE.... $465 in MS-04, BN
1908-S, SCARCE... $55 in MS-04, BN

These are some pretty significant values, eh? Who wouldn't love to find one of those? So any time you find a 19XX IH, you gotta get a little giddy.

Then the bubble bursts. Unlike silver coins, which often suffer no harm after years in the soil, copper coins take a severe hit in value when presented in "as dug" condition. Even a 1909-S is almost worthless after laying in the ground for a century.

Coin values are based on two things: rarity and condition. Most circulated coins are in the fuzzy range of condition around VG, and most people know it. The really fine examples are rarer than rare. Dealers and those who would pay you for them will not pay significant money unless they are in these higher, gradable conditions. In other words, you must have pristine, un-blemished examples to get the high, guide-book prices we all drool over.

A dug IH will never reach that sort quality, so you have to weigh the odds here. Even if it was a 1909-S, and providing you could prove it - it might be worth $25 in that condition. While that is significantly more than face value, it's dug condition almost guarantees it will be of little value when compared to it's mint mates which have not spent a hundred years in the ground.

But inquiring minds want to know, so IF you are going to clean it, the best way is to use electrolysis. That is the only way I would recommend you clean any potentially valuble coin, dug or not.