i got this out of a house that was gutted by fire, is there any way to safely remove the soot? or should i leave it as is and consider it melt value only?
The only way I would approach that is with soaking in a glass of hot distilled water for a day and maybe with less than 1/2 a teaspoon of Palmolive or Ivory dish washing fluid. That may remove some of it. BTW, house fire damage is a fairly common issue. I have acquired several like that (no dollars though, just dimes, halves and quarters). Some of the soot soaked off ine with the above treatment, but only a little bit of it. They still look burnt (which they were).
This would be a perfect coin to use for experimentation because it was already damaged before it was subjected to the fire. Because of the wear, it would not have graded better than VF/XF before the fire, but because of the obverse scratch across her hair, it probably was only worth melt. So, why don't you try soaking it in acetone to see if it will remove the soot? Chris
Looks like someone already took a stab at cleaning it. I would just dip it and see what is left. You can't hurt the value at this point.
I see you've already soaked it but I agree with sportpak, the provenance may keep it's value above melt. Keep any public records from the fire if they exist. Unless they start making more 1887 Morgans, then melt it.
looks like this is what i'll do, i got newspaper aticles of the fire, was my home back in '86, i still got a box of proof sets that are all melted together, been cutting them open now an again, some coins are ok some destroyed, was kinda hoping the black would remove easily cause my dad still has a shoebox full of silver dimes an quarters from like the 20's an 30's on up that are all black, i still gotta go thru those, probly 4 or 5 hundred of em...
