I'm afraid to try to remove the gunk above the lady's head though. I tried just a light rub but that crap is stuck on there, prolly come off with water, but like I said, afraid to ruin the coin.
Nice AU coin The walking liberty half is a beautiful design. I believe several folks share this oppinion.
You may consider soaking the coin for a long time in pure Acetone. Keep it covered so it doesn't evaporate. Do not rub the affected area. You might gently touch the area to dislodge the dirt at the end of the soak.
Hmm...okie dokie. I'll do that, but the closest thing I have to pure acetone is nail polish remover...very limited resources where I live
Don't use nail polish remover! Buy acetone at a hardware store. If you don't have one nearby, wait until you can get to one.
Not too sure about using nail polish remover, might have lots of other stuff in it. Acetone is usually available at hardware stores. Water shouldn't hurt the coin and should be the first thing you try. Distilled or deionized water is prefered for soaking the coin, but tap water won't hurt as long as you use some distilled water for a rinse. If it were my coin, I would soak it overnight in tap water and then thoroughly rinse it with distilled water. Let it air-dry or pat it with a cotton towel (no rubbing). You could use the tip of a toothpic (could whittle it down till it is thin) to see if you could probe the stuff around her head away. Failing this, you could try the acetone.
Wal-mart sells bottles of 100% acetone...saw it there the first time while my girlfriend was shopping for makeup. It's in the nail polish aisle...and pretty inexpensive. FWIW.
Awesome feedback. I definitely will not use the nail polish remover and will try the water trick while waiting the (minimum of) one week for the acetone to arrive. Thank you all for the useful information. BTW, does acetone work well with sticky goo on cents as well? A sweet little kid came over and brought me a 1982 cent but stuck it to duct tape and now I'm 'stuck' with leftover sticky on the cent. Thank you!
Agreed - acetone will definitely turn your copper cents pink. Might try BadThad's VerdiCare. Products like dish soap and MS70 will turn your cents indigo/blue...as will sending them in to NCS for conservation.
