Conservation on large Cents

jdimmick

Anyone had any good luck on conservation on large cents, got a couple early draped bust lg cents that are vf+ to XF and pretty much original brown in color, but reverse and some on obv have verdigris and dirt in and around the devices. I went back and read where many posters mentioned they liked the coin pre conservation becuase it made color unnatural afterwards?

any comments appreciated

Mr_Spud

I tried out some of that Verdicare on a few large cents with verdigris on them. It did remove the verdigris, but now the spots where the Verdigris were look brighter than the rest of the coin and you can tell the coin was messed with.

Flatwoods

I have soaked copper in olive oil/ mineral oil with varying degrees of success.
Olive oil is slightly acidic and may do more than mineral oil. Could be good, could be bad.
A steady hand with a thorn and magnification sometimes helps. Some verdigris just wont come off and if it did you may not like it anyway.

Maywood

Long term soaking in mineral oil is probably best for verdigris. It's a better choice than olive oil which turns rancid after time and may damage coins. Other stuff like VerdiCare, CoinCare and Blue Ribbon tend to dry out and need to be reapplied periodically, but they're more like a preservative than a cleaning agent. My experience has been that dirt and such can be removed from coins but that actual "verdigris" is chemically bonded to the coin surface. Removing it entirely will damage the surface.

Walkerguy21D

I’ve had better luck with tap water than this crap; it won’t even affect the slightest traces of verdigris that I’ve tried it on.

The original Blue Ribbon works very well, as long as the green stuff, gunk, etc is still somewhat soft. I doubled the value of a wreath cent that straight graded after treatment, from a Details-environmental damage holder.

Walkerguy21D

Some of my copper that was treated with blue ribbon and are now in straight grade holders:

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jedm

@Mr_Spud said:
I tried out some of that Verdicare on a few large cents with verdigris on them. It did remove the verdigris, but now the spots where the Verdigris were look brighter than the rest of the coin and you can tell the coin was messed with.

I haven't done this, but can relate because a coin I purchased back in 2017 looks as though it had a similar treatment. I will post a pic so you can see what I am thinking that @Mr_Spud may be referring to:

Mr_Spud

@jedm said:

@Mr_Spud said:
I tried out some of that Verdicare on a few large cents with verdigris on them. It did remove the verdigris, but now the spots where the Verdigris were look brighter than the rest of the coin and you can tell the coin was messed with.

I haven't done this, but can relate because a coin I purchased back in 2017 looks as though it had a similar treatment. I will post a pic so you can see what I am thinking that @Mr_Spud may be referring to:

Yes, just like that, thanks

GiveMeProof

Is trichlor even legal anymore?