sweet wheatz

I have a couple of early "s" date lincolns where I can't make out the entire date. Is there a way to bring it out. I know it can be done on nickels,

green18

Eenney meeny chilly beany, the spirits are about to speak...

Sorry, I'll go stand in the corner.....

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They also serve who only stand and wait....John Milton

quartertapper

I would try a bright light and a microscope to identify the date. I realize you probably can't really lower the value of a coin worn this bad, but I really don't know of anything that works on copper like the stuff for nickels. I have to wonder about soldering flux though. It's pretty strong stuff.

desertgem

Since the cent is so worn, if you have some lock lubricating type of graphite powder, you might try brushing it over the date area. If there is any amount of the date left, it might be visible. The graphite shouldn't lower the value any lower than it is.

Jim

DoK U Mint

Anybody here ever try making "rubbings".
Place a piece of paper over the coin then with a soft art charcoal see if you can create a readable smudge of any remaining date.

Everybody has seen this trick work in the movies where the detective retrieves the message from the pad page beneath the removed previous written on page. Might work/might not, but no harm done.

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"We're all ignorant, just on Different Subjects." Will Rogers

tbarreca

It helps to understand the physics and chemistry behind why the acid works on the nickel.

Because the background of the date is itself raised on the Buffalo nickel, the metal directly under the date digits has a higher density that the metal surrounding it after the minting process. When you treat it with acid, the chemical dissolves the metal of lesser density a bit more than it dissolves the higher density material directly under the date numerals. As a result, when you dissolve a thin layer of metal, the denser areas stand out a bit, and we end up being able to see the "ghost date" typical of such coins.

On a penny, the date is not on a raised area, but is in the middle of an otherwise flat field. If you try the acid trick, there's not enough additional metal under the digits of the date to produce the same effect.

Did that make sense?

Just Carl

All depends on the type and strength of the Acid. For example if you use concentrated Sulfuric Acid you would not have to worry about the date. Mostly the coin will be gone anyway. However, on the brighter side you will end up with really nice looking Blue Crystals of CuSO4.
Some have tried Vinegar since it contains on an average of 4% Acid. If you have or know someone that has a Lead-Acid battery in thier car, open the hood, open the top of the battery and siphen off some of that for your coins.
All just kidding of course. As already noted that trick that works with Nickels will not work with Copper coins. And in most instances with those Nickels people do more damage than good. Everyone brags about the great finds but never mention how many coins were distroyed in the process.
If your coins are so bad you can not read the date with a 10 to 15X magnifier, forget them.

MattSpike

I know we've already explored the acid alternative here but I have extracted more details from coins by shining a light on them horizontally. This will make any raised points on the coin (i.e. the date) stand out a little more. Although if the date is mostly obliterated this probably won’t help.

Just Carl

That is basically true but remember that unless such a coin is really rare, such a worn coin is just not worth the trouble. You wouldn't want to place it in an Album, no one would buy it. Well maybe on ebay though.