Lincoln questions

SanctionII

For all Lincoln fans in forum land, two questions for you.

#1 - Is there any way to remove a small (about the diameter of a pencil lead) dark spot located on Linclons beard on a mint state fiery red 1909-P cent. Some particle made contact with the surface of the coin and a spot developed. As time passed the spot expanded outward slightly. The center of the spot (where the particle made contact with the coin) is dark and the spot lightens as you go towards the perimeter of the spot. The cent would look great if the spot could be removed leaving the entire coin fiery red. My suspicions are that trying to remove the spot would not improve its appearance and would likely make it look less appealing than it is now.

#2 - Do 1909-S mint state cents typically have a streaky appearance and do they come in fiery red color? The coin I am looking at has streaks on the obverse running in the general direction of from 11:00 to 5:00. The reverse has similar streaks running generally from 1:00 to 7:00. I have been told by a dealer that the planchets for early Lincolns can have this appearance. Further, the coin is not fiery red (as is the 1909-P in question #1). Instead it is darker in color, with alternating light and dark streaks and splashes of multiple shades of purple on parts of Lincoln's portrait, portions of the fields to the right of Lincoln and to the right of "one cent" in the reverse.

Gonfunko

Can't help you with #1, but most 1909-S and 1909-S V.D.B. cents do come with streaky planchets and fiery red coins are quite unusual.

SanctionII

Thanks Gonfunko for your reply. As a followup question, if fiery red 1909-S and 1909-S VDB cents are uncommon, do the grading services give a "Red" designation to these coins even if they do not have the fiery red appearance of a 1909-P, or do the grading services simply give "Redbrown" or "Brown" designations? Put another way, do the grading services treat/view the streaky 1909-S and 1909-S VDB mint state lincolns different from other non streaky mint state lincolns?

earlwbollinger

I haven't had much luck removing black spots from pennies.
I had a Flying Eagle with some black splotches and the best I got so far was a reduction in the size of some splotches.
I soaked it in olive oil for a month, and it didn't do too much, so I then tried some acetone, with little or no effect.
Next I tried some triclor solvent and it didn't appear to do anything either.
I then put it back in the olive oil and it's been soaking for two or more months now.
I might try soaking it in acetone overnight later, but I have to find a small used baby food jar to hold the acetone (plastic doesn't work with acetone). I had a thread about this with some photos a few months ago in the forum, but I haven't looked to see if it is still around.

Although olive oil and acetone are pretty safe on pennies, I do not know what effect these would have on your pennie's toning.
It seems carbon spotting, once it occurs is permanent (at least without damaging the coin).

richbeat

I'm trying to remember what the term is for that streakiness. I think it's wood grain or wood panel effect, or something like that. It's common and I have wheat cents of other dates with it also.

coppercoins

#1 - NCS is the only safe way I have ever found of removing carbon spotting from copper. They will examine the coin and only remove it if they can do so without harming the coin. Trying to remove it at home is a very dangerous task and is nearly impossible to do successfully. I have no idea what NCS does to remove the spots, but nothing I have tried on common coins with such problems has worked.

#2 - Early Lincolns do come in a full fiery red, but are much harder to find than what you describe, the striped planchets (due to improper alloy mix). Even with some purples and other colors I have seen them grade full red. Contrarily I have also seen some that I though should be similarly graded red go red-brown because of the stripes. It's more or less a crap shoot.