Hey everyone , this coin I own and would like to know if you would go ahead and try to mildly clean it . What method besides Acetone would also work . Just trying to remove some surface dirt and verdigris . It's a "Dug" coin anyways and going to a new home at the Coin Adoption clinic .
Before anything more drastic, I would give it a decent soak in distilled water and then a rinse with clean distilled water, then gently pat it dry with a paper towel. Possibly a second soak if the first shows any improvement.
First of all.. NEVER use acetone on an old copper! Leave it as is. Do try the distilled water soak but nothing else. That's the most gentle thing you can do.
There is no way that you can improve that coin. You can only make it worse. The best thing to do is to leave it alone.
Ehhh, maybe not. And maybe that too, depending of course on what one does. Often the best choice, but a soak in distilled water certainly isn't going to hurt it, but may, stress may, improve its look slightly. But in all honesty and based on the pics I really don't see how.
I've found a few similar Large Cents with my metal detector and found that, "cleansing" (different than cleaning) with anything other than distilled water ALWAYS resulted in an ugly, grainy surface that obliterated details previously visible only because a uniform coating of corrosion and "whatever you want to call it". Treat it gently; accept it for the condition and history wants vs YOUR personal contemporary or emotional desires. NOTHING looks worse or decreases value like an obnoxiously cleaned coin...especially copper.
No to acetone as that only helps with organic matter and there is none I can see. Try @expat method. That's really about all there is to do for this one.
