Hi all... I live on the Oregon coast and I found this which I never thought I would ever see. It's an 1867 S seated liberty half dollar and I'm just curious on what condition you think it might be in. The only thing I have done to it is I put it in warm soapy water to see if I could just get any of the dirt that was on it off. It did remove some but it is still quite dark in nature. I really don't plan to sell it so I'm curious to see if you think I should clean it anymore. The second set of pictures are out in the sunlight. I tried to see if I could show any detail. It doesn't show to be super rare but I would appreciate any information you might give me. Thanks for your h elp, Chris
Welcome to CT. Is this a metal detecting find? Rules that apply to most coinage aren't totally applicable to finds of that sort. I would tend to soak it in water, starting with hot water and replenishing it every day after brushing the coin with a soft tooth brush. Neat find
Seems to be enough detail in the eagles wings to put it at around VF20. The environmental damage is quite severe and also quite permanent, but a very neat find...
Quite agree. Nothing can be done about the environmental damage incurred. Do nothing further to try to improve its' appearance. Enjoy the coin on the merits it possess and know that your find it most unique.
Treat it like poison ivy. "Leaves of 3 let it be". It definitely looks like a Metal Detecting find. Maybe in a body of water or sand??
Meh, at this stage, pretty much nothing or everything is bad for it. If you decide to use soap or some other cleaning agent, make sure it is RINSED OFF thoroughly.
@Wooldog55 Soap is an abrasive, even liquid soap will scratch a coin. For that matter so will a nice soft microfiber cloth.
The items placed in soap can cause scratches on coins, even your car. There are non abrasive soaps, like Dawn, but they can still cause scratches.
Cool find, about 1.9 million minted so not rare but a lot of money in its day. gently washing a coin like this with some soapy water will not harm it as long as it is well rinsed afterward. You might do some research on the land where you found it, might be able to tie it to a particular homestead. A real piece of history!
Dipping/soaking an object in ANY solvent (with or without soap) will not cause scratches, how can it. On the other hand, wiping with any substance, no matter how soft can cause scratches by scrubbing around grit particles.
Detector find, I presume. The environmental damage to it is pretty extreme and irreversible at this point. Even if one were to remove the blackish encrustation, you'd be left with a coin that has really rough surfaces. So since it's a problem coin either way, I'd leave it as-is. Better a dug relic in its original "relic" state than a dug relic that's been messed with, I suppose. Now if I had dug that, back in the day, I might have tried electrolysis on it. Electrolysis would probably remove the black crustiness, but again, you'd still be left with a pretty rough coin. I successfully removed some encrustation off a Spanish half-real I dug, once, using electrolysis. But I also accidentally "burnt up" the first large cent I ever dug- it did not respond well at all to electrolysis, since its surfaces were pretty unstable (advanced corrosion). Regardless of all that, it IS still a very cool find.
PS- an ultrasonic cleaner might also work. I don't know. We used to use them in the jewelry store where I once worked, but I never tried one on any of my detector finds.
