Saw a raw 1854 half cent this weekend with some "contamination" on it that I'm not familiar with. The coin was well struck and from what I could see would probably grade in the MS-64 to -66 brown range. BUT It had some strange (to me) surface contamination. There was some orangish irregular 1-2mm spots on it particularly at 8-10 o'clock on the obverse rim. The spots weren't shiny. They looked matte. But there was no missing them. Orangish on a brown coin. Any ideas what they were and what caused them? I would probably have bought the coin except for the "something".
I'm sure it would, but as you read in my last sentence, I didn't buy the coin. Ergo, no image available.
Orange Juice? Tang? Orange paint? Ever notice there are no words that ryme with Orange? It is odd since almost any contaminate that would combine with Copper usually turns Green. What you saw was probably just something on the coin but not part of the coin due to a chemical reaction. This in reality could be anything from paint to anything. If the price was right, might be worth taking a chance that it would come off with Acetone.
