Operation Pocket Piece

ziggy29

While going through a few of my old uncategorized coins, I ran across one I forgot I had: a cleaned 1886-O Morgan with AU-58 details. My goal over the next few weeks/months is to make it a pocket piece until I wear enough metal away that it no longer looks cleaned. The coin has a classic cleaned look: hollow, dull shine, no luster. The picture below makes it look nicer and less cleaned than it is.

Here's the coin at the start of the test; I'll revisit periodically.

mgoodm3

That reminds me, i should take another pic of mine.

dan383

This one has never been cleaned .

DorkGirl

My guess is that it will take longer than you think It takes quite a while in a pocket to wear a coin down. One of the guys at work carries a Sac, he's had her in his pocket for 5 years. She's still AUish.

ziggy29

<< <i>This one has never been cleaned . >>

I'll be happy to cancel the experiment and sell to you for AU-50 money if you really believe that.

[Edit to add: Oh, you mean YOUR attachment. Never mind!]

DorkGirl

ziggy, I think he's talking about his pocket piece that he put pics of in his post

ibzman350

As Becky said, it'll take a while



here is my pocket piece after 1 1/2 years






would of been nice if I would have kept the lighting the same.




Herb

DNADave

<< <i>While going through a few of my old uncategorized coins, I ran across one I forgot I had: a cleaned 1886-O Morgan with AU-58 details. My goal over the next few weeks/months is to make it a pocket piece until I wear enough metal away that it no longer looks cleaned. The coin has a classic cleaned look: hollow, dull shine, no luster. The picture below makes it look nicer and less cleaned than it is.
>>



I've carried a Peace Dollar for over a year, almost every day. It looks more like a cleaned coin now than ever. The constant rubbing and handling gives it a polished look that would come back from a TPG as "cleaned" every time. I now believe that coins acquire that grey look by being stored with other dirty coins in a jar or piggy bank or some other container with dirty coins/objects. Doesn't everybody else's pocket piece look polished?

Shamika

This will be interesting. I love these kind of threads.

ziggy29

I "cheated" and rubbed it with my hands for a few minutes (after trimming all my fingernails and taking my wedding band off to avoid scratching it). It actually looks considerably better already; while still obviously cleaned, it's not as harsh-looking just by getting to top layer of fake shine off of it. I think that was the easy part, though. The rest, I think, will be tougher to get rid of. The funny thing is, it looks more lustrous now that the fake shine has been subdued. There was still a bit of luster remaining that wasn't apparent when the coin was uber-shiny. Not a lot, but more than it was, which leads me to believe this coin probably was still pretty lustrous before someone ruined it.

The shame is that this is a somewhat better date in choice AU, but not worth much cleaned. Better to have a nice XF than a cleaned AU, at least to me, if I can successfully make it. Anyway, into the pocket it goes, and I make no guarantees about not cheating more in the future. My main goal is to see how well I can eliminate most of the cleaned look, and to see how much I have to "circulate" it to get there...

Colorfulcoins

Here's where you all are hoping to end up.....in about 20 years!

construct

An SBA in a FA-02?!

My 1826 Large Cent (G-04 details, bent, net AG-03) has gotten bright on the rims and over some of the high points. Soon I'll be able to see what a large cent looked like a hundred years ago.