A few things. First: She's in bad shape! Scratches and God knows what else. It "might" be a G-4 if I'm lucky. Second: Are we looking at a die crack? cud? retained cud?..etc; on the Rev in your opinion. Third: Could any dipping/cleaning safely clean her up from all that PVC? Thanks!
The only thing I would put it in is acetone. Dipping it will make it look even worse than it is right now. And yes, that is a die crack and probably chip with how wide it is. Cud's happen on the rims and not the devices.
If you wash this one and lose the dirt, you will lose all contrast. Perhaps an acetone soak followed by a water soak and then leave it alone.
I'm assuming you want to save the coin as best you can, so we'll proceed as if it's PVC. It might not be. If that's active PVC, it's probably already eaten into the surfaces of the coin. Even considering the caveat I will follow this recommendation with, if the coin were mine I would drop it into a baby food jar full of acetone with something to prop the coin up so both faces get equal exposure, cover it in airtight fashion, leave it in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area and not look at it again for four days. Then I'd attack it with a Q-tip and rose thorns (you_do have rose thorns, right? The coin conservator's most important tool ) while immersed in fresh acetone. For the record, latex rubber gloves are OK for protection with acetone, although they'll only resist it for about ten minutes. Butyl rubber is far better at the cost of manual dexterity. Don't trust nitrile gloves in acetone. Me, I tolerate the stuff in direct exposure for a few moments OK, but some do not and you haven't felt pain until you get acetone into an open wound. I do this, when I do it, at the side of a table next to an open window, with a window fan blowing out, pulling its' air from across the work. For the record, I use tongs instead of gloves, coated with Liquid Rubber (with the EDPM formulation; it's as good against acetone as butyl). That way I don't have to touch the acetone at all. Anyway, after that long a soak, the first few moments with the Q-tip will tell you if you have PVC or verdigris. The PVC will come up just like you'd used Goo-Gone on bubble gum, all icky and stuff. Verdigris, if it comes up at all, will feel gritty. If PVC is it, remove what you can and then alternate a couple daylong soaks with more Q-tip interaction. A couple of those (at least one after you see no green whatsoever left on it) will pretty much render the coin safe. Caveat: If you are completely successful at removing all the black stuff (it isn't PVC plasticizer contamination), you will be left with a coin having a noticeably "cleaner" swath the exact shape as what was once black. Might want to consider that. Oh, the coin? Yes, that's a die crack, characteristic of a later-die-state JR-3. The line leading down from the right side of the A in STATES should be another.
After any treatment that leaves the coin looking un-naturally clean, does anyone have any suggestions for making it a more natural looking surface?
Thanks to each of you for all the feedback! Pitted, corroded, scratched....I think she's too far gone. I'll probably just leave her the way she is. Although, if I experiment (as a learning experience) I doubt if I could make it worse then it already is. Regarding the die crack; I was going to check the error websites and see if something similar is listed for that date. If not, maybe they would like to list it as a learning tool for others.
I've already attributed it, at the end of my post. Maybe in a baggie with a couple coppers and some fine dark clay (not completely dry) in the pocket for a month or so?
As per usual habit, I pulled up the Heritage Auction Archive (if I'm online doing numismatics, the Heritage Archive is open in a tab, always), looked up 1835 Bust Dimes and then listed them by "Highest Grade First." The higher-grade coins almost always have attribution information in the auction writeup. In the case of your coin, I then modified my search to read "1835 crack" instead of just "1835." First coin on the list of results did it. You can attribute dang near anything from Heritage.
SuperDave Then I'd attack it with a Q-tip and rose thorns (you_do have rose thorns, right? I use sharpened bamboo skewers. They have a multitude of ends on them. they grab things well with just a stab at it.
This old Marine may not know what he's doing but I've taken coins like this, taken a couple of paperclips and fashioned them to where they'd hold the, coin up on its rim, sit that in a juror with warm dishwashing soap for a half a day then rinse thoroughly with freshwater let dry. Then I take the coin to my brass polisher that i used for reloading put it in and let it run sometimes a half a day depending on how bad the coin is. I find that walnut shells do lot better than the corn. Then final cleanup under the microscope with a rose Thorne super glued to a toothpick to do some touchup cleanup. If all else fails put them in your pocket of your pants and throw them in the washing machine. The only problem with that is you have a tendency to get polished lines which are not a good thing. I'm personally not a fan of acetone treatment and avoid using it. And if you decide to go with just a dishwashing soap treatment I would suggest Don, it has a tendency to break up more grime than some of the others. And one crucial part I generally boil the water. The hotter the water the more it opens up the pores on the metal of the coin and allows for a better cleaning. I only wish that I would've taken a photograph of the 1838 one sent coin before I put it in the dishwashing soap dip. You can see that coin on my thread 1838 or 1888. A friend of mine picked up one of those jewelry sonic cleaners at a garage sale and filled it with hot dishwashing soap and put a really bad coin in and it came out not too bad. In the long run the choice is yours. Let's all just have fun collecting. \V/
What??? Uhhhhhhh, NO! Not no but HELL no! You're no longer in the Marine Corps. You're not polishing your brass like you did with Brasso 40 years ago!
For well circulated coin dishwashing detergent soaking I personally do not think it's a bad thing. But that these coins are for my personal collection and not for sale and I do not make a practice of cleaning coins. But I feel that coins that really have no monetary value and you own them and you want to see what they look like cleaned up that's my choice. And correct me if I'm wrong other members are suggesting the acetone treatment and you don't have a problem with that. This is a coin on acetone.
Just remember that someday those coins will be in someone elses personal collection and they might be happier if they had NOT been cleaned/polished. Cleaning can always be done, uncleaning rarely. Although we tend to think of out coins as being OURS we are only their caretakers for a brief time. There is an obligation on us to preserve them without damage so that future generations may enjoy them as well. Think about say a VF bust dollar. Sounds nice doesn't it. Now imagine that some previous owner decided he wanted it "nice and shiny" so he polished it to within an inch of its life. After all it was HIS and he could do anything he wanted to with it. He's gone now, and YOU get to enjoy that polished monstrosity. Don't you wish he had practiced proper storage and curation prectices instead? That is what someone someday may think of you and how you treated the coins that fate entrusted to your care.
Sir everything you're saying is correct. And I totally agree with you on clean coins. But unfortunately you run across coins that you cannot even tell if there coins they are in such bad shape. I receive one of those coins in a bag of wheats, at least I assumed it was a coin, it had so much corrosion and dirt on it you could not tell what it was it looked like it had been buried for hundred years. And if you decided to scrap it you would not even get the going price because it was so badly corroded. This coin I felt was definitely a candidate for the hot soapy water treatment, this particular coin it took me three days of soaking to get it to look like what it looks like now. And like I said I wish I would've taken a photo before so I would be able to show it like the one I have now the afterwords. Now you can read the date and at least see what kind of coin it is all I know is whoever gets my collection and looks at this 1838 cent at least knows it's a penny and not some clump of metal with encrusted dirt that you couldn't tell. Ask yourself which would you rather have ?And if were going to get into the cleaning we need to go over to the chat form, because that's another conversation in itself. Like the US Central America all the coins recovered from it and cleaned, slab graded and sold for top dollar. Like I said that's a whole new topic.\V/
