Advice On Cleaning a Morgan?

Deep Nickels

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Jun 13, 2019
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California
Hi everyone! I started detecting back in March and about a week ago I (somehow) came across my first Morgan. Now after coming home and getting her in some water, I've found some green corrosion and a bit of tough black corrosion mainly on the heads side of the coin. Would you guys reccomend that I leave it be? Or is there a way of cleaning it without doing too much damage? Also, I should mention that seeing as it's my first Morgan, I have 0 intentions on selling it so I dont mind losing a little value if it means getting the corrosion off.
 

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It’s a common date Morgan dollar. Cleaning won’t hurt it’s value. The copper in the coin is leaching, that’s the corrosion.

Your picture is as far as I’d go in cleaning.
 
Alright thanks guys! I guess my biggest concern was I wasnt sure if corrosion is like rust on steel; where if you dont do anything about it itll get worse and spread. But I guess since it's out of the ground that shouldnt happen?
 
Yeahhhhhh buddy! That’s called the “character” of the coin.:yes:
Sweet coin, where’d you find it?

Thanks! I was at an old 1895 high school. I figured the day after graduation I'd come out and check under the bleachers of the football field for any fresh drops, but when I got there a guy was already detecting and just finishing up. He told me there wasnt much, he had checked under the bleachers already and just finished up the field. So I went under the visitor bleachers and did a couple passes through the field anyways, found 3 pull tabs in a row and decided to walk up to the soccer fields since I hadn't hunted up there yet. Walked about 30 feet off the field and was in a little dirt area near the football scoreboard, hit a 90-91 on my AT Pro and at most was expecting a silver quarter or something. After digging through hard pack and some good sized rocks I saw a big eagle staring back at me and I just sat there stunned, speechless for a minute. Only thing I can think of is the hard pack/rocks may have deterred someone from digging it because that school has been hunted TO DEATH.
 
Congrats on the Morgan Dollar, great find! It looks good just the way it is, but as a couple of posters have said, common date, so a bit of water and baking soda, make a paste, and then a light rub will not hurt the value at all.
 
Thanks! I was at an old 1895 high school. I figured the day after graduation I'd come out and check under the bleachers of the football field for any fresh drops, but when I got there a guy was already detecting and just finishing up. He told me there wasnt much, he had checked under the bleachers already and just finished up the field. So I went under the visitor bleachers and did a couple passes through the field anyways, found 3 pull tabs in a row and decided to walk up to the soccer fields since I hadn't hunted up there yet. Walked about 30 feet off the field and was in a little dirt area near the football scoreboard, hit a 90-91 on my AT Pro and at most was expecting a silver quarter or something. After digging through hard pack and some good sized rocks I saw a big eagle staring back at me and I just sat there stunned, speechless for a minute. Only thing I can think of is the hard pack/rocks may have deterred someone from digging it because that school has been hunted TO DEATH.

That is awesome. A HUGE percentage of good old coins are going to be DEEP, hidden by trash or in a place just as you described...a real PITA to get to. If everything you know so far tells you...”dig a hole”, then dig a hole. Finding a coin like that early on will drive you to the next great find, and they are out there waiting to be found.
Again...BEAUTIFUL!!
 
That is awesome. A HUGE percentage of good old coins are going to be DEEP, hidden by trash or in a place just as you described...a real PITA to get to. If everything you know so far tells you...”dig a hole”, then dig a hole. Finding a coin like that early on will drive you to the next great find, and they are out there waiting to be found.
Again...BEAUTIFUL!!

Thank you! I decided I'm gonna keep her as is.
 
My op is, if it has higher numismatic value, don’t clean it, even if you’re not ever selling it. The coin will eventually change hands at some point in time.
 
Great find! looks like treasure should. Think about how you want to tell the story when it is passed down. Maybe prep it for your book of coins.
 
Unbelievable!!!! Congratulations on that Morgan most of us here haven’t found one yet. Huge bucket listers of your list. [emoji1360]

Now you do know you are forever hooked right? I found a 1829 8 reales in my first 4 months of detecting I haven’t been fishing in 3 years. My fishing buddies I’ve heard say I lost my mind lol Good luck.

-Degenerate swinger
 
Common coin not worth much as you’ve been told. But not many find them detecting. I never ever clean my coins ; no oil
,wax , whatever ( just lightly get the dirt off)for me. I love em just like I found them; makes me remember that moment of excitement. That being said if you want to experiment on one yours would be a good one to try. Nice find.
 
Congrats on finding the Morgan. My first Morgan was also an 1879. Giving this coin a gentle cleaning won't hurt the value one bit because it's a very common date and is sold mostly for its bullion value. Baking soda or toothpaste and a gentle scrub might remove some of the green.
 
That hard pack helped preserve the condition of it,too. That's in decent shape for 140 years.
 
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