I found my first Indian head cent finally at my local town square park (1904, I think. Also, my metal detector is pretty low-tech), but this thing is in PO-1 condition at worst, PO-2 at best (haha), and I want to clean it up at least so it's identifiable and somewhat attractive since it already has little to no value already. So how should I go about cleaning it? I've washed it up with soap and water, but it didn't do much. I don't really want to scrub the dirt off, since it's already pretty worn, but I'm not sure a chemical cleaning will be any better. Any suggestions?
I think that a lot of the MD guys use rock tumblers with walnut shells to clean their finds. It's kind of a big investment for one coin though. I vote scrub away!! What have you got to lose?
Dang, and I used to have one of those when I was a kid. I guess I'll try Bone's suggestion, then. Thanks for the responses!
Try a combination of baking soda and distilled water. Make a paste, rub the coin very sightly with the paste and then rinse. If you really don't care then just dip it in Tarn-X or any jewlry cleaner. The cost of the cleaner wouldn't be wasted because you can use it for other purposes like cleaning jewlry. Then there are the thousands of other ways to clean the coin and many using standard household items. For instance soaking the coin in Lemon or Lime juice, battery acid, Venigar, Coke or Pepsi, Mountain Due works better, etc. You may want to just put the coin in a pot, add water and put on a stove and boil to remove ordinary dirt.
Electrolysis is bad news. It will take off all patina and can even take off metal on the coin. I suggest putting it in olive oil for a while and forgetting about it.
