1853 Silver - Need help cleaning.

bfmco7 · Dec 27, 2008

I went out for about an hour yesterday, the weather has been pretty good here lately and the ground is nice and moist. I got a pretty good signal and dug a 3 cent piece at about 3 inches. I also got another coin later that I can't identify - Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I would like to clean the silver 3 cent piece, it looks like it has rust on it, but I am not sure how, any recommendations would be great.
Thanks

3 cent piece

3 cent piece other side

Unknown cent

Skrimpy · Dec 27, 2008

bfmco7 said:
Alright well the consensus is to leave it as is.. I'm pretty happy with it like it is.. I just thought I might be able to pull some more of the brown off of it. sssooo.. Okay I will leave it as is and place it in the case with this, I found about 4 months ago.

Well there are ways to go about this that won't hurt it. What you really need to do is look the thing up. Find out if it is a rare date or variety (I don't know anything about three centers...don't know if there were any different varieties). Find out if the potential is there for it to be really worth something. If the potential is there, don't do a thing toit yourself. Take it to a pro and have them restore it. If it's only worth a couple of bucks and you don't plan on unloading it, go ahead and clean it. No harm no foul. Again, I don't know much about three centers so be sure you know it's not worth anything if you don't have a pro look at it.

curbdiggercarl57 · Dec 27, 2008

I agree do not try and clean the 3-Cent piece, way too nice looking of a dug coin. The Indian, hell torture that one to death. Great find!

nc-joe · Dec 27, 2008

Another vote not to clean the 3 cent piece.

As for the IH, it's pretty trashed already, toss it into a rock tumbler, you can't devalue it an further.

RickyP · Dec 27, 2008

That is one sweet 3 cent piece

Mr_Mojo_Risin · Dec 28, 2008

That is the most beautiful 3-cent silver I've seen on here. Sure, it's cruddy, but attempting to clean it
would do it a disservice.

Trond · Dec 28, 2008

Beautiful find...

Fast_Dave · Dec 28, 2008

I'd have to vote for cleaning. I can't see that leaving the iron incrustation would add to the aesthetic or numismatic value of the coin. If I plan to keep a coin, it'd drive me crazy to look at the brown gunk every time I pulled out the album. If it's iron encrustation like it looks to be, use naval jelly and apply with a soft toothbrush. Wait a couple of minutes, rinse and repeat as needed. The only problem I've had with this on silver is that sometimes the encrusted areas come out shinier than the rest of the coin.