1909-S? Indian head cent to clean or not?

[bigslur]

thanks for looking,
I have a 1909 Indian head cent with lots of green (mold) on back. It appears to be from S mint can sort of read through the growth on back. So here is the magic question, do I clean it? If so with what? Or should I try sending it to ANACS first?
Thanks for looking and looking forward to hearing from the experts.
Jim

[coop]

The only thing I would try is mineral oil. It will remove dirt and grime from it. Soaking if BU. Using a worn out toothbrush if it is a circulated coin. My experience in the past has been if you use a cleaner (Acidic) it will make the top layer flake off ruining the coin. Try it on a deep colored coin (nothing you want to keep) and you will see the coin will flake and have NO SHINE and look a fake pink color. Most grading companies will not grade a cleaned coin. They will just bodybag it and send it back to you. So I would try the mineral oil bath as that will not cause the metal to seperate. After cleaning the coin I ruined, I found pieces of copperflakes at the bottom of the container. Never trying that ever again. It took a historic piece and turned it into something that was totally undesirable. Bath your coins, but not clean them. If you use soap and water, make sure they are totally dry before putting them into a 2X2 or flip as the moisture will turn them green. So be safe and be sure they are totally dry.

[Bob P]

I can also recommend 'GOO GONE" to remove the gunk if it's relatively soft and pasty (PVC damage). If it's green from corrosion, it will not work. It does not harm the coins patina, and is gentle but very effective. As far as how to do it, Coops got all the right answers. I hope it is an 09S. Thatll be cool!

[bigslur]

Bob and Coop,
Thanks for responding, I will try an old toothbrush first and then try mineral oil. And Coop I will make sure it's dry. I will let you know soon what it was.
Jim
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[coop]

I bought a Indian Head Cent at the coin show. It looked nice. (A second love for copper and classic designs of Liberty on coinage) So I tried the tootkbrush and mineral oil giving it a nice bath. Something I forgot to do was to take an image before bathing it.
But here is the end result:


Something I noticed when bathing the cents was the way I used the brush. I use only the farthest bistles on the brush from the handle. Using multiple stokes rotating the coin slowly about a 1/8 of a turn at a time. You need to force the brush into the areas where excess dirt accumulated and other debrie. I turned the coin over and did the same to the other side. Squeezed down on a facial tissue to absorb as much mineral oil as possible. Check under the scope and saw areas I needed to go over again and on the indian Cents the rim is most crutial on both side because of the denticles. But I re-checked and saw what I wanted to see. On the reverse you could see a little luster under all the crud.
Again, don't use this method on uncirculated cents or proof cents. You will turn a BU coin into a circulated one quickly.

[GarryN]

That looks really nice Coop, I dont see any hairlines at all.

[coop]

Garry: The coin is already circulated, I just removed the gunk and there was a light green debrie area around the date that was removed (probably copper cleaner). It does work on circulated coins, just don't try it one a BU or Proof. I tried it once on a proof one and I haven't found it yet to re-add this to WHY you don't do this. I know it in one of about 5 tubes of proof cents. Just haven't found it yet. But will when I find it.
Here is a before and after picture. I used mineral oil and a tooth brush on just one half of the reverse of a Canadian 1 Cent. Its a secret how I was able to just clean 1/2 of the coin. (OK, it not all the tricky, just place sealing tape on 1/2 of the coin and start working) You will note that the process only remove dirt, grime, but will not remove dark green spots (Exposure to the elements) or stains on the planchet like in this case something left darker brown spots. All we are interested in with this process just removing just the dirt, grime to give a better appearance, and not that cleaned coin, pink color. A layer was remove of a dipped coin, but this process just spiffs up the surfabe from unwanted dirt and grime. Check under the scope and you can see what was missed the first time and concentrate on the spots missed. You can determine that areas need help and fan those tip bristles in those areas at different angles.