1863 Indian Cent - Chemically Cleaned?

jeffcbay · October 13, 2008 10:11PM

Let me start off by saying, I'm a baseball card guy, and I have no clue when it comes to coins, but I do respect your hobby.

I have a friend who has a 1863 Indian Cent in great condition, but when they take it to a coin shop, they tell them it's been chemically cleaned. What do they mean by that, and what does that do to the value? To my very untrained eye, it looks fantastic. I'm sorry for not having any scans, but I may be able to get some if you really want to see it. Thanks for any help!

crypto79 · October 13, 2008 10:29PM

it's the equivalent to bleaching and ironing a baseball card.

jeffcbay · October 13, 2008 10:55PM

Ouch... lol. What do they look for in a coin as far as surface condition? Something untouched? Tarnished? Is there a proper way to clean a coin?

relicsncoins · October 13, 2008 11:05PM

The coin has been dipped in an acidic solution. There are plenty of copper nickels cents in slabs that have been dipped.

JJ

crypto79 · October 13, 2008 11:08PM

kind of like is you drink 1000 cold beers over the course of a year and then you get handed a warm one, it just seems off. You look for discoloring, light hairline scratches, or on a original coin it will be cleanest in the cracks or hard to reach places but on a cleaned one it is backwards as the fields are lighter then the crevices. Also with copper it tends to turn pink to pink brown when cleaned.

AUandAG · October 13, 2008 11:24PM

Somebody just dipped it in K-boom! Have you seen those TV ads where they take a penny and
dip it halfway into the K-boom? It comes out super bright and unatural. Pretty but ruined.
bob

jeffcbay · October 13, 2008 11:44PM

I can see that, it is maybe a pink-ish brown. That's crazy, I would figure clean would be a good thing, for eye appeal. It's a friend I work with, if I can convince her to let me take it home to scan it, I can show you. Thank you for being patient with such a noob from the bottom half of this forum!

crypto79 · October 14, 2008 3:27AM

clean is good but it is all about originality. Smart people will disagree on if a light dipping(silver or gold) or oil treatment (copper) is bad or destructive but once a coin is messed with it isn't original like a card that is has it edges trimmed to get rid of ding or to center it.

Barndog · October 14, 2008 3:38AM

<< <i>Somebody just dipped it in K-boom! Have you seen those TV ads where they take a penny and
dip it halfway into the K-boom? It comes out super bright and unatural. Pretty but ruined.
bob >>

ha! The Sham-Wow will fix that

1863 Indian Cent - Chemically Cleaned?

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