1778 britannia ??

[whispers]

My son and I went out last sat. and he found a large copper, I thought at first ,but after spittin on it and rubbin gentle we could see a date 177?. looked like an 0 or 6 or 8.The front had a bust of GEORGIVS facing right and back had britan nia surrounding woman holding an olive branch of sorts...in her rt hand. her left ,some kinda flagpole w/a sheild underneath. Any how after looking in red book found one very close if not exactly same.After further research discovered halfpence (regal)were not made that late)but rather conterfitted by some guy in MACHINS'mills new york.I don't have a picture as yet because in search of last number in date we scratched w/fingernail off some brown stuff (biological stuff my guess and it took a lot of background detail off coin)hope we didn't screw up.Some one told me it was ok to remove crud with fingernail is that true?or not such a good thing to do?We did howevwer see the 8 at end afterall.

[BuckleBoy]

Careful with the fingernail! Also careful with water--it IS a cleaning method...


I would use peroxide--and others here will likely agree. The peroxide method can be found in a post called "Cleaning Large Cents" by Don in SJ (one of our resident colonial coin experts ). This post is in the "Cleaning and Preservation" section of the forum. I also made a post about the Peroxide method there as well--with before and after photos.

If you can take a clear photo, that would be best--before ANY cleaning methods are used! We should see what it looks like, and then advise you...

After cleaning it might be possible to attibute the variety of this coin.


Regards,


Buckleboy

[whispers]

Thanks buckle boy for the advice.I'm sure we didn't scatch off any raised parts but feel by removing the darker color crud from lower we lost some detail and I could kick myself as it was not my coin and my son was listening to my advice.

[Iron Patch]

You should still post a pic. You don't really need to have the last digit to get a sense of what it might be.

[GL]

Well what happened? Now I'm intrigued therefore bump.

[BuckleBoy]

Yeah. I was wondering that too.

[GL]

I read about the new banner find 1783 Copper and this one sounds like a similar coin with comparable detail so now it's important that pictures get posted. I know nothing about coinage or Colonial currency but the term Machins Mills seems to stir up interest and I see it mentioned here. The shield and figure holding an olive branch, the bust of the ugly king on the front and a readable date make me want to learn more.

[Iron Patch]

I read about the new banner find 1783 Copper and this one sounds like a similar coin with comparable detail so now it's important that pictures get posted. I know nothing about coinage or Colonial currency but the term Machins Mills seems to stir up interest and I see it mentioned here. The shield and figure holding an olive branch, the bust of the ugly king on the front and a readable date make me want to learn more.

Yes, for starters get it posted. If it's 1778 and not 73 it gets a little more interesting. That said, remember a rare coin like the 1783 is just that, rare and very unlikely to find.