1723

[emesis]

After finding 5 colonial coppers this year, I finally got one clean enough to identify and date. It is a 1723 Hibernia half penny. Only in fair condition, but it is my oldest dated coin. Should i risk cleaning it with more than spit? These coins can be ruined easily. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Jim if your out there, I only beat your coin by 229 years.
Sorry no pics, coin would not show features worth the effort.

pfp

 

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[Colonial KirkPA]

Nice haul of Colonial coppas. Hmmmm....maybe soak it in olive oil for a week or two. It will bring out some of the detail. Where you from? HH!

KirkPA

 

[birdman]

I have used hot sauce and coke also works pretty good but don't leave them in there to long. Very nice digs.

 

[Evolution]

Sounds like a great find. If your coin has enough detail to make out a date, I'm sure we could make out some detail from a picture. Why dont you try and see what you get. Congratulations on your oldest coin to date. I cant really offer any advice about cleaning it other than dont clean it. Although with the condition you describe the coin to be in maybe you should give it a shot. Maybe a long olive oil soak.

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

I have used hot sauce and coke also works pretty good but don't leave them in there to long. Very nice digs.

I wouldn't do that. Where did you hear this from?

 

[John (Ma)]

Sounds like a nice find and probably a very nice area where it was found.

 

[txkickergirl]

nice coin hope you post a pic

 

[BuckleBoy]

I would talk to Don in SJ about it. He seems to be one of the best at cleaning early coppers, and he is really knowledgeable about them. Here's his post on the peroxide method:

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,39135.0.html

You certainly wanna practice on coins that aren't valuable or special (like wheats or maybe Indian Heads) first. You could probably PM him if you have any questions about the process. Oh, and if you want to get these types of results, DON'T USE THE OLIVE OIL FIRST!!!!!

Also, stay away from Coke. It will actually dissolve a piece of meat if you leave it in it long enough.

Regards,

Buckleboy

 

[Kas]

Olive oil soak will leech out of the coin for eons.

The peroxide works good. Other thatn that soap and water and leave it alone.

 

[Evolution]

Hey pfizer. Whether or not your coin is cleaned I would still like to see a picture. I understand it is not cleaned completely yet but what harm would it do if you took a quick picture of the current condition. if you can make out a date I'm sure the picture will be great. Congrats once again on finding a coin so old. You could take another picture when the coin is cleaned up further and we would love to see that one also. Condition doesn't matter to us. We just love pictures.

 

[CRUSADER]

Leave it as is.

 

[birdman]

Kirkpa, A friend in Germany showed me his collection of coins and I saw some before and after he cleaned them with hot sauce and coke and he also used A1 steak sauce and they cleaned up nice . I tried it with some junk coins to start with and it worked well on some and did not do anything with others. Coke works well with aluminum coins and tokens . Hot sauce works well but don't leave em in more then 15 minutes or so. In most cases the coins were in real rough shape and it did make a difference. The safest of course is olive oil. Just let em soak for long peirods of time.