Elgin Indians. Anyone have a way to cleans these puppies up?

[Gimmie The Loot]

First of all - thanks to Low Batts for being such a gracious Elgin host. It was great to meet you. Skates, good meeting you too. I love the hulk hogan mustache and the rambo head band!

Here are the pics of the two IHs I got along the sidewalk. Does anyone have a way to safely get the crap off the IH pennies?

HH!

[Lowbatts]

Anytime homeboy.

Another newbie with an Ace pops a couple IH's in the parkway matrix. Excellent! Them IH's seemed to have a lot of good detail left when I viewed them under the loop. Wish I could help with the cleaning but my record on that is somewhere between dismal and mediocre.

[diggin jimmy hoffa]

Great looking Injuns and I think that they will clean up nicely.

I found this cleaning method on one of the other forums here on T-Net and it works great.

I clean mine by using over the counter Hydrogen Peroxide and put some in a bowl and zap it in the microwave. Keep an eye on it while nuking it. Whenyou see it start spewing, take it out. Be careful though, as it will scalled you. Put the penny in and let it fizz. When the fizzing is done, you can take it out and should be able to get a date. If not, repeat the nuking process again.

This process works great and my Indian head look awesome with this procedure and it works on wheats too.

Make sure that you do not nuke the solution while you have the coin in it, as it will be a sparkler fest.

DJH

[Dirt fishing Wolf]

Nice pair from Elgin! I would clean them up like DJH mentioned. 1872 looks to have great detail.

[Pocket Spill]

Peroxide will work but can have some negative results. If the IH has corrision there is a risk that it will further deteriorate the coin. Also, exposure to peroxide will many times turn the IH a dark color. It's a matter of personal preference it that bothers you or not. In my experience, the benefits of peroxide have to do with how corroded the coin is. The more corroded, the more likely that peroxide will actully damage the coin more.

My advise would be to first use peroxide on that 1907. It does not look as corroded and should clean up pretty good. The coin will probably turn darker but all or most of that dirt should come off. You can also soak it overnight in peroxide at room tempature after the hot treatment. It will turn a darker color but the peroxide will continue to clean it.

Be careful with that 1873 or 1872 (can't tell for sure what year) It appears to have been dropped shortly after it was minted and has a ton of detail left. However it also appears it has more corrosion and the parts of the surface of the coin may have been compromised. Can't tell for sure from the picture. I would first try and use just hot water and some mild soap. Don't use baking soda. It will take a bunch of that detail right of the coin if corrosion has occured. You can try peroxide on it but be careful.

[Pocket Spill]

Forgot to mention....nice pair of IHs! That 1870s is a great find

[twistidd]

Ditto on PocketSpill's advice.

By the way, I almost never finds IH's that nice. Mine are almost always totally corroded, and I'm lucky I can even ID the coin as an IH at times. Nice scores!!

Joe

[Gimmie The Loot]

Thanks guys - I'll post pictures after I give them a peroxide bath.

[ronbo22]

Send them to me. I will have them cleaned and back to you by 2040.

[watercolor]

Nice IH's!!

I love finding those. . . (it's been a LONG time since I've ever found more than one during a hunt :P)