Cleaning Old Copper Coins With Calgon??....

Garrett424

Silver Member
Jun 20, 2014
3,164
2,284
Granite, Maryland
Detector(s) used
Teknetics Omega 8000
Teknetics Delta 4000,
Deteknix XPointer,
Fiskar's Big Grip Digger & my old Army Trench shovel for the tough jobs
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I found my first large US Cent a few days ago. It's pretty toasted and I haven't been able to pull a date yet.

I've done the peroxide thing and it's been in the olive oil for a few days as well

. First Large Cent & Old Token Last Hours of Summer 2014 003.JPG reverse First Large Cent & Old Token Last Hours of Summer 2014 004.JPG

I've been doing some research and have learned that some professional coin cleaners use Calgon to clean coins. It's supposed to change the surface tension of the water and make it easier to use the toothpick method.

My question is, has anyone ever tried this method and if so, what kind of results did you get and what can I expect??

I realize that this coin may be beyond repair but I would love to at least get a date from it if that's even possible.

Thanks in advance.
 

AMorgan

Full Member
Feb 22, 2008
184
15
Houston Texas
Congratulations on the LC find! I know how excited I was to find my first one... If the PH of Calgon is neutral, give it a shot... If you want to see detail, knowing that any numismatic value is already gone from this coin, you may want to try electrolysis... it might be able to help uncover a date or design type that will help narrow the range down a bit... I have dug a 2 cent piece that was in similar condition and toothpicking it revealed AU details... still the numismatic value of dug copper coins is quite low and I would rather keep the piece based upon the historical significance of where it was found.
 

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