I bought this cheap enough that I thought I'd take a flyer on it. There is some foreign "stuff" on the liberty and the rest of it is tarnished a rusty red/brown. Any ideas on how to get this off without wrecking the coin? I won't be back until late tonight, but just wondering if anyone has had any experience with coins like this? Thanks in advance.
That's a tough call. It looks like it might grade AU, but there is no telling what may be hiding under the crud. Do you really want to find out? Chris
As for ideas on how to get it off, one would just think some acetone would get some of it off, BUT, this coin, in my opinion, looks like it was dipped a while back, and was even dirtier than it is today. You can try acetone if you want, but it is a $200 coin or so, and I wouldn't mess with it.
Not at all? I was actually thinking of buying the verdi-care and testing it on some of my "junk" to see if I can get a good technique working and then go to this coin.
Well I guess you could try that if you wanted. If you can find other examples you have, that are only worth melt anyway, test it out and see what you can get, result-wise. I've never used any of the "Verdi" products myself, but I know what they can do. Never heard of one being used on a Morgan, but I'm sure it has been before. I just wouldn't do anything to this particular coin, but that is just me, an improper cleaning, altering, conserving, whatever you want to call it, can go sour...
You see anytime when you put any kind of chemical on a coin you should actually be nervous especially one of high value. You need to know what you are doing before anything, which is why you should always test what you are doing on coins of lesser value, and maybe change a few variables each time you do a new trial with a new lesser valued coin. I know BadThad and many others would know more about this subject than I would, with me, I always just stay away from putting anything on my coins. I know Verdi Care is a safe substance to use on coins, but even with that said I haven't seen before and after shots of it on a Morgan...
I get it. I've not touched any of my coins with anything, and that makes me really nervous about this one. I just didn't want to pass this coin up. I have some other old "junk" to play with first, but even doing that I might be fooling myself. I haven't seen and before/after on Morgans as well. I went to the link he provided in the open section and it was all cents, nickels and a quarter and Ike that I recall. Thanks for the advice.
Verdi-Care is for taking verdigris off coins - your coin doesn't have any verdigris on it. So Verdi-Care would likely do nothing. Same for acetone or any other solvent. The only thing that will remove the brown toning, and that's what it is, is a commercial coin dip - an acid. But if you don;t have any experience at using it, and based on your post I'd say you don't, then you should stay well away from it. You need to leave that coin alone.
Its likely just an accumulation of crud from being in circulation. I personally would recommend just leaving it alone. You have what appears to be a nice original example
Your best bet is to leave it as is. Any attempt to remove the crud will de-value the coin. The 88 is not the rarest of Morgans that year, so this coin would be possibley AU at best and you're looking at around $20-$25 value.
