I recently picked up a stunning uncirculated 1885KB Hungarian copper krajczar with luster to spare. I'm definitely sending it in to NGC in my next submission, but I'm debating sending it to NCS first due to the pinhead sized spot of corrosion in the center of the shield on the obverse. At 19mm, this is not a large coin, so the spot is barely noticeable to the naked eye. I almost never collect classic copper, but this is an exception as it's for a Hungarian 1867-1916 type set I'm working on. So, my question to those with more expertise in copper than I: Do you think this coin would benefit from NCS conservation or would you leave it alone, and why?
I have mixed feelings with NCS and copper. I've had a few coins that greatly benefitted from there service, but have also received details grades on coins that were already in clean slabs. This one went in as an ANACS MS-64 and came back as UNC details. It has since been cracked out, but really has a flat and unnatural over dipped look.
Well, I'm not really contemplating attempting conservation on this myself. I'm not really a copper guy; I have all of 2 copper coins of note (an 1848 AU55 BN Large Cent and this krajczar) and do not expect to pick more up except for the 4 others needed for this type set. I don't think it's practical for me to invest time and money into learning how to conserve copper properly myself just for one coin. I'd rather just send it to NCS. My concern is since the coin has such great luster, I don't want to damage the coin to get rid of a tiny spot if it's unlikely to lead to further damage if left alone.
My feeling is that they would do a spot treatment on it and be able to remove the corrosion spot, but the damage may be below the surface of the coin. Depending on the severity, you could get either a clean grade or a details grade for "spot removed" or "corrosion". Gamble either way.
Noted. Keep in mind it's a small coin and the spot is really only distracting at 5x magnification. To put it in perspective, the spot is slightly less noticeable than it is here:
Copper is very touchy. I have seen copper coins that were helped by NCS, and I have seen a lot of copper that came back looking (in my opinion) worse than when they went in.
