1877 Indian Head Cent with green/corrosion

[Pootastic]

Good morning,
I recently purchased a 1877 Indian Head Cent as a filler for my collection. It is heavily corroded and covered in green. I do not plan to sell the coin and I would like to remove the corrosion as much as possible to make the coin more readable.

Is there a method for this that will not alter the original surface?
Perhaps soaking it in acetone?

I have never altered any of my coins, but as you can see the coin is quite corroded.
Thank you,
Brandon

[Iceresistance]

Metal Detecting find

[JTCC]

sheesh, she's gone.
acetone would not fix the current issues of this coin, perhaps some verdi-care would help?

[Daniel]

You can't undo corrosion like this, the coin can't be restored.

[Pootastic]

That is unfortunate. Thank you all for your replies and assistance. Thankfully it is just a filler for my small cents collection. It would be nice to make it look a little better, but it sounds like it is past that.
Thanks again.

[Paul]

May I ask how you determined this to be a 1877 please?

[Earle42]

An easy way to take coin photos:
:
https://coinauctionshelp.com/forum/view ... hp?t=23514

[DSCoins]

Paul, not sure if I am actually seeing a date or part of one (I'm. going with latter one). I can barely see what looks like half an 8 (I'm guessing this is an 8 and not a 3) along with Two 7's.
It is also a metal detector find

[Pootastic]

Here are some better pictures. They were taken while in a flip, but I couldn’t get better outside of the flip. Camera wouldn’t focus well.
They show the date more clearly.

[Paul]

TY

[Pootastic]

You’re welcome.

[Earle42]

Here are some better pictures. They were taken while in a flip, but I couldn’t get better outside of the flip. Camera wouldn’t focus well.

If you take the link I posted you will find a picture showing an easy way to force the camera to take a focused picture. That is why I posted it for you.

[Pootastic]

Thank you Earle42. I very much appreciate your assistance.
Here is my attempt:

[markustg]

I would seek out resources that key in on cleaning ancient coins.

You may have some luck with the techniques used with ancient coin restoration.

here is a link to start you off

[Earle42]

Cann see the date now!

It's going to be hard to do anything to this coin to ruin it much more , so in this case I say do what you want to try to make it at least look better.

I admit I am guessing, but I think markustg gave you a decent idea. I soaked some ancients in olive oil over a long period of time and had decent results.

[Pootastic]

Thank you all for the advice. Sounds like restoring the coin is out of reach, but I may at least be able to make it look a little better.
Thanks for the video markustg! I will check out the techniques used. If I am able to try any of them I will post some pictures to show how it turned out.
Brandon

[Earle42]

Some before and after would be a good help for people searching the forum in the future. Thanks for keeping us informed

[monsterbug1]

It would be interesting to see what you do. I put a slick 1790's large cent in olive oil for a wile and the details seem to stand out just a little bit more now. I still can't positively ID the date, but the coin looks a lot better

[Pootastic]

I soaked the coin for months and it did not help much at all. It looks like it made it a little darker though.
However, I did not use any tools/toothpicks or anything to scratch the corrosion off as described in the video. I was afraid to mess up the date. Oh well. Thank you all again for your help!

[Earle42]

Thanks for the followup. Having this coin is better than not having one at all. Its still a piece of history.

[Daniel]

You did right by not fiddling with the coin, you can't undo corrosion like this and would have removed more details.