It just caught my eye. 1864 2 cent coin, civil war era. in very good to fine but I am not an expert on these so maybe I am off a bit. Large motto.
VF-20......somewhat honest in nature. Reverse could do with a bit of conservation. Looks like candle wax sticking to it.
I took a paper towel to it and wiped off the green copper oxidization. What should I do to conserve it? Thanks.
I think that my illustrious colleague (who ignores me, and who I ignore also) might have given the best answer.......
Yes i agree im New to coin collecting and i read no wipping how would clean a voin that as the green oxidation on copper I also read u can also clean them with Olive oil is that true
I took it to a local coin shop I buy at and he did a quick conservation for me. A light Qtip with coin solvent that removed all the gum and gunk.
This current condition looks likely much better than when you bought it. It's clearly presenting as 'cleaned', but I think it still has nice eye appeal, but for future buyers something like this needs to be advertised as 'cleaned'. Nice coin.
It's an 1864 large motto two cent piece. The sharpness grade is Good, but it has been cleaned. The Grey Sheet price is $15 with a narrow range of prices only going up to $24 in VF-20. I'll bet those numbers are reflective of "grade-flation." To me, a VF-20 should have the "WE" weakly visible.
I appreciate the help and opinions. My opinion is if a coin is obscured by green oxidization and grime, to use a restorer that removes that but not the patina is OK. When a coin has been only treated to remove build up of things not related to the patina I prefer that look. Build up of green oxidization and old oil and grime is very unattractive to me. I buy coins because of how they look, what I like. I would never clean a coin or try to make it shiny again. But as this one turned out IMO its now a nice looking coin. As it was was OK but I don't like that the crevasse had all that garbage built up.
To me, it appears that possibly the coin was glued into an album, and the residue was left. Removing of the residue has now caused a color difference on the surface, and would be considered "cleaned," in my opinion, but still a nice example that I would gladly own in a collection.
