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preserving salty large cents

capteider

Full Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Messages
187
we just stumbled on a spot with a bunch large cents. most are totally toasted but my son founf one that "not bad". in the past i have just soaked copper objects in fresh water then licked them. if they didnt taste salty ...done.
sometimes this works other times, the objects get green and crumble. i know there is a better way...but till now i really didn't care. any hints??
 
I found with the LC, and other old coppers, nothing works besides dry it out and toothpick. I took some bad ones and tried all the oils, cleaners, dissolvers, even my sonic cleaner. Each coin comes out black and worse than when I started.

I also found the old coppers features are removed with cleaning as well. Sometimes the corrosion is what's left of the feature and when you knock it off, it's gone.
 
I agree with EmuDetector, crusty large cents are best left alone. Just a gentle water rinse to get the loose dirt off and toothpick a little to reveal some highlights, I only clean them when they are in really good shape with plenty of detail. I have yet to find anything that really works good.


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They honestly have no collector value except to maybe someone who needs to complete a set. However, one of the best ways to bring back the natural color (because they tend to seem crusty and turn orange if cleaned) and preserve this is mineral oil.
 
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