First Indian head cent!

[Walt82]

I found my first Indian head cent about 10 feet away from where I pulled my great seal button out. I think it an 1899, any ideas on cleaning it, like boiling peroxide seems popular on the ol interwebs?

 

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[relic lover]

Congrats there is nothing like your first Indian. Plus you broke into the 1800's at the same time. With the amount of corrosion I don't think cleaning would do it much good if it was mine I would do an olive oil soak

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[trapperart]

Congrats on your first injun

 

[SD51]

Nice IH, Congrats on your first!

 

[JeffInMass]

Finding your first of any type of coin is always great- Congrats and here's hoping there's many more to come!

-- Jeff --

 

[Trezurehunter]

Congrats on your first Indian. I also soak my copper coins in Olive Oil for a week or so. It will give it a little sheen.

 

[DIG ADK MTN]

Nice!

 

[Rustic]

Congratulations on your first 1800s coin. If it were mine I'd give it repeated soaks in the hot peroxide for 15 seconds at a time, then use a toothpick to scrape off any loose crud, and repeat until it's obvious that no more detail will be brought up. Then I'd give it a soak in mineral oil to finish it off...
Keep hunting, I bet there's more where that one came from

 

[Tpmetal]

Guys olive oil is no good for your coins, and has been linked to "bronze disease" and other problems down the road. Use only distilled water to do soak and then dry at 250f and use microcrystaline wax to seal while still warm

 

[Carolina Tom]

Congrats on your first IHC!

A true piece of American history. Keep checking the area, perhaps a Barber will show up... they hang out with the Indians.

Best of luck to you!

 

[EasternShoreMetal]

Congrats! I went over a year before I finally found my first Indian, then, they started popping up all over! Hope it's the same for you.
I invested in a small ultrasonic cleaner. It's was not expensive, maybe $35.00 or so. It mainly just cleans out all the dirt on and in the coin.
Often then the coin or relic feels a little rough, because the dirt has eaten pores into the metal, but a coat of wax will bring that back to feeling smooth
and protect it from any other oxidation.
With non-valuable coins you can get a little more aggressive if you want, I think that coin will clean up pretty well. (PM me if you want to know what I mean by "aggressive")
Good luck and congrats again! HH.

 

[wildthunder]

no peroxide. This is your first Indian You only get one first. Don't do to much to it for now. Listen to Tpmetal.

 

[washingtonian]

Wow, congrats!

Believe it or not, an Indian Head Penny is the first old coin I ever found, even before a wheat penny!

My brother and I got a cheap detector 12 years ago to hunt a sandy lot where a coin hunt is hosted for kids every 4th of July. Little did we know that the history of that area went back 100+ years. The Indian Head was so corroded that I didn't even notice it was significant when we first uncovered it.

When my brother and I split the haul for the day it ended up in his stack. He said "doesn't something look funny about this to you"? We cleaned it up a bit and saw the date, 1904!

We called my dad (who knows all about old coins) and he told us about the history behind what we found. Such an amazing feeling knowing you're holding that piece of history in your hand.

Like others said, here's to many others! 12 years later, I'm still looking to break into the 1800s. Good luck!