Ok, 1897 IH. Very good condition, want to clean it.

[mattw]

I dug an 1897 IH the other day, not a valuable coin but my first IH. Water and tooth brush with soap revealed that LIBERTY is completely legible. I have it to the point that the wonderful green patina is showing, but it has some remaining chunks of black corrosion that I would like to remove. What should I use on it? If I loose the patina, I am not very concerned.

Thanks Matt

[Iron Patch]

On the topic of cleaning finds pictures speak volumes. No one should ever give advice, or listen to it, without pics... especially if it's a find they care about! That being said, hydrogen peroxide is the copper cleaner of choice but without seeing a picture I can't say if it will work. Sometimes the real hard crud on a coin is near impossible (or impossible) to get off without ruining the coin. Often times removing the green hurts it as well.

[mattw]

Here is a scanned image of the front of the penny.

[VERDI-CHEMIST]

Hello, I'm new to this forum. I'm a chemist/coin collector that specializes in corrosion and verdigris.

It looks like your coin has a full array of corrosion, from light to heavy verdigris. The best way to completely remove verdigris is with acid. However, it will completely destroy the patina of the coin and expose pitting. In other words, it will look like a harshly cleaned coin. A diluted solution of hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid at hardware stores) will do a good job of completely striping the coin at the cost of removing all numismatic value.

However, if you want to conserve the coin and NOT clean it, you should try VERDI-CARE™.

http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/verdi-care.html

This is a much gentler product that I've developed and it will greatly improve the appearance without destroying the coin.

[VERDI-CHEMIST]

Here's a before/after shot of an IHC conserved with VERDI-CARE™.

[RPG]

Here's a before/after shot of an IHC conserved with VERDI-CARE™.

Hey, that's pretty cool V-C. I'll remember that for the future. Welcome to T-Net.

As far as the one in question, I would leave it as is. Looks good with all that green.

[VERDI-CHEMIST]

Thanks RPG!

I decided to venture out of the coin world finally. Actually, I wanted to learn more about the techniques/methods that you "ground diggers" use to remove or deal with verdigris. I've studied the area in depth, but never went out to some forums to see what real people are doing. Sometime you gotta pull your head out of the books to see what's really going on! LOL