Post Colonial?

[joeandmonty]

I just love private property. I prefer it to working parks. Less trash. Seems more personal in a way.

I work as a freelance cinematographer in NYC. I get assignments from the networks to shoot for shows like Good Morning America. One day two weeks ago, I went up to Westchester County just north of the city to shoot an interview. The owner lived in a lovely old house up there. It dated from 1845.

So I got around to asking permission to detect. No Problem. Returned a week later and this is the highlight of my finds. Found it next to a very old apple tree. Visible are the letters "CTOR"

I did a visual search for coins showing these letters and I came up with Connecticut Post-Colonial coins, dated around 1785. (I am not sure as I click "Post Message" that the photo of this old coin is properly attached)

Good thing I photographed the coin at first because I tried

 

[John - Maryland]

Use White Vinegar. Let it sit for a few hours and than check it. Coins that old you get a dark shell around them. Use a toothpick (Wood) along with the vinegar to slowly remove it. Use the vinegar untill you remove all the outer shell.

 

[joeandmonty]

Thanks, John. I wish I had waited the several days needed to get your response. My impatience, and the way I "cleaned" the visible letter surface only marred what was there.
Does this white vinegar technique actually remove the hardened dark material that covered a portion of the coin? What is that material? Oxide of some kind?

 

[BlackX]

What I'm finding with the way soil treats copper coins where I'm at is that almost any cleaning on any of the real old coins is going to remove detail. As oxygen, chlorine, etc., react with the copper, it changes the surface to something else. Sometimes it's that copper rot/disease that will keep eating at it or, at the other end, sometimes it forms either a nice verdigris patina. In the middle is where I've run into problems with cleaning: whatever it is composed of shows the details on the coin but, if I clean it with much of anything at all, it comes off and takes the detail with it. Sadly, I learned that with my first 1847 or '57 half cent. (Actually, my only half cent so far.) I scraped it lightly under water with my fingernail (normally much softer than copper or the patina) and it took the detail right off of it.

Good luck!

 

[SNOWY]

Joeandmonty, here's a link to a site that has a wealth of info on old copper coin cleaning...

http://www.digbible.org/restoration.html

 

[joeandmonty]

Wow. Now that is an impressive article on cleaning coins. Thank you.