whats a good way to clean a severly green 1881 IH

[Stryker47]

I just got back from my trip to see family in PA , I found a 1881 IH on a old playground back home and its basicly a green disk can barely see wheats , I can make out date and see a little of indian. did the whole oil thing helped some any other suggestions ?

 

[Crosby]

Boiling peroxide followed with a baking soda rub. Go slow, since most of the detail can come off with that green patina.

 

[osgood]

Some of my green coins are very stable, just green, I love them that way. I have found some large cents that where green , almost powdery green and very unstable, those sometimes loose their face before you even get them home- once in the field I used saliva and that ruined it very quickly. I would proceed with caution overall. CO

 

[Stryker47]

Thank you for the advice Stryker

 

[SteveP(NH)]

You won't be cleaning as much as removing some of the copper that is the coin. That green stuff is a copper oxide that formed because of a chemical interaction between the copper in the coin and the water and salts in the soil it was sitting in. If you remove the green you will be removing the surface of the coin. However an 1881 IHC is a common date and that coin has no collectible value (to a coin collector) so if you want to try and clean it up don't worry about it. The harsh chemical method described in another post in this thread will very likely remove all of the surface detail of the coin.

Personally I don't think there is much you can do to restore that coin so that it looks a lot better but try soaking it in olive oil for a few months and then extremely gently wash the olive oil off with some dishsoap and warm water trying to put as little pressure on the coin as possible.

 

[go-rebels]

Electrolysis!

See my post in the 'Views' forum.