Colors on early copper, is green possible?
BIGAL2749
Posts: 742 ✭✭✭✭
These are coins I have owned for 30+ years and have recently sent them in for grading.
I knew they were au but I loved the colors especially the green1832 but our host labeled the green as unc/ questionable color and the reddish 1833 as AU details cleaned.
Copper is obviously not my thing and knew the colors were different (much more vivid, especially the reverse) on the 1832 but with the degree of luster (image captures none of it) took them as real.
Whenever I looked at the 1833 I always questioned the originality but could talk myself into believing is had not been cleaned and retoned.
Not only can ownership add a grade but encourages the owner to accept something that isn't so.
2
Comments
Yes, green is possible, and can be highly desirable
The old timers called them 'greenies'.
I think there is a forum member Joe Greencooper.
The shade of green on your half cent is a bit unusual and perhaps suspicious.
The 1833 looks quite nice to me
I have over 125 large cents, many in better grades, and of those only a few have traces of green, generally a light 'frost'. This is probably my best example:
i know very little about copper...but enough to know i like the 1833 a lot.
The green on the obverse of the 1832 is nice. Some on the reverse (12:30) is active corrosion.
Green makes me nervous on old copper. I much prefer brown.
The statue of liberty has not always been green...it has a layer of copper over an iron frame...if I read that correctly.
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Green in and of itself can be natural, but IMO the color on that first coin is unusual in intensity and distribution.
Coin Rarities Online
This one I photographed recently is graded. Edit: There is a TrueView of it that shows a rather vibrant color map, but it was not possible to see, much less photograph, those colors through the slab.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
The 32 looks like the starts of environmental damage. The 33 looks like it has scratches on it and maybe the graders took that as an old cleaning.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
A couple of great looking large cents and knowing the limitations of getting true colors on images much be knockouts
The '32 appears to have active corrosion of some sort at 1 o'clock and perhaps more at 12:30.... I really do not see obvious signs of cleaning on the '33.... Cheers, RickO
The corrosion on the 32 (also center reverse) I felt was responsible for the strange colors.
Never wanted to touch it as it hasn't changed in the last 30 years visionally although it must be active microscopically.
Now that I have able to see the 1832 half cent on my desktop, I don't think that the green color on that coin is a good thing.
Yes, possible.
Greenies can be beautiful in their own right,
As long as it's stable. The green on the 1832 half cent does not look stable.
Would a product such as Care stop the corrosion?
Any other product suggestions