Find a penny, pick it up....

[andy volkerts]

I looked at your grading info, and based on the rarity and the fact that they are so rare, you may be looking at 200.00 if it cleans up well!! congrats!! great find...........Andy

 

[Robby Raccoon]

My oldest and most valuable find to date:

Andy, thanks [], and I'm going down to a place that I trust to consult a man and get guidance on:1. Should I have it further cleaned by professionals. 2. What should I do about it for now. 3. Should I have it graded. Here is what I did:10 times I boiled 3% USP Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) for this coin.3 times I took a Q-tip of cotton lightly to it to get gunk off.I neutralized the acidic H2O2 using baking soda and a very light rubbing of it with the wet Q-tip and finally soaked it for a while in distilled water before the last Q-tip lightly touched it.Patting it dry, I got this result:

Notice the details of the feathers still clearly visible on all of them, although some show wear. LIBERTY is still distinct on the headband. The necklace shows a little wear, and so does her hair, but some individual strands are present. What I thought was pitting appears to be extant corrosion, so a professional cleaning might be able to remove that.

I learned how to grade Indian-Head Pennies. The horizontal bars on the shield are all clearly separated still. The ribbon does not at all merge with the arrows. It appears that the horizontal bars are pinstriped, but that was not mentioned in my learning on how to grade-- not sure why, as those would likely wear away soon. Some details in the leaves are gone, but most seem to remain. Some luster of the copper is showing through, but much is darkened and covered in patina. There is still some corrosion. I did only a little thumbnail-scraping before the first Q-tip to remove stuck-on sand. There is some corrosion that I likely could scrape off, but I'm not going to touch it until I get professional help. An interesting thought is that the likelihood of finding one of the rarer IH pennies-- from the 1860s-- covered in dirt inside of an 1890s building-- with only a flashlight and far doorway for light and myself still being off from the accident-- and the coin still having such details is very, very low.... I don't believe in luck, but this is one lucky penny that has not seen much use in 146 years.

 

[elmoleaf]

Re: My oldest and most valuable find to date:

Nice. I wouldn't do anything more to it. Keep in mind when the green stuff comes off, it leaves behind ugly pits.Dug coins are corroded (aka "environmental damage") and do not have the same value you see in online guides. Likewise, those are retail prices...what you'd pay to get one, not what a dealer or someone might necessarily offer.Look at completed ebay listings to get an idea...you might be in the $30-$50 range....really crappy corroded ones have sold for $20 or less.Get a magnifying glass and check the date...if you have the 1869 overdate, you have a winner...that'd still be probably $200 in that condition.

 

[Robby Raccoon]

Re: My oldest and most valuable find to date:

Thanks. [] It was dug indoors near the surface. Most coins end up outside. It got luckier. I'm not interested in selling it. I'm interested in seeing it look as good as possible. What do you mean by 'over-date'? Do you mean like-- I think it was-- the 1888 over 1887?

 

[andy volkerts]

Re: My oldest and most valuable find to date:

Whether you can trust the place or not, take their advice re value with a grain of salt, as value is always in the beholders eye. I wouldn't put any money into cleaning, as you are going to keep it, I do not think the extra expense would be worth it, do the professional cleaning just before you decide to sell it. but, their valuation will be somewhat helpful, just be aware that a lowball valuation may be possible. I am always shocked when I hear of a pro evaluator giving a very low offer on something they know is quite valuable, you hear it all the time on Antiques Roadshow. be careful it is too good a find to let someone get it from you for less than its worth........Andy

 

[Robby Raccoon]

Re: My oldest and most valuable find to date:

Sounds solid.I'm a restorer of antique books, and that wants to carry over to all my hobbies regarding antiques-- I'm learning on how to replace tops on bottles and fill in chips/cracks. Now I've learned how to clean a coin.Essentially, I want things to look as original as possible. I can never get it to look like it was just minted, but I can likely have it brought to very-fine condition. If I were to sell it, the story would be lost-- no one who saw the coin would know that it sat in a building since-- likely-- before 1907 (judging by all the items I've pulled out of that room,) that its finder had just been struck by a car an hour before whilst cycling out to go dig, or that it was the finder's first pre-1890s find and first find worth more than $20. They'd not know all that went into the coin, nor would they even know what city it had spent most of its life in. I've not seen Antiques Roadshow in years-- I stopped watching TV two-three years ago. It's my favorite find to date. Other than fossils, I used to solely collect coins.

 

[RCO]

Re: My oldest and most valuable find to date:

that's definity a hard penny to find according to book is a hard to find date . I don't know a lot about old pennies but I'd say its a keeper

 

[Robby Raccoon]

Re: My oldest and most valuable find to date:

Definitely a keeper for me.

Back of IHP, before and after my cleaning-attempt. This first pic was taken whilst I was still quite dirty. LOL.

 

[RED Matthews]

Re: My oldest and most valuable find to date:

Hu Robert, I just spent a good 20 or 30 minutes writting to you and pushed something wrong - and loswt it all. This has happened before. I need to know what booksw of instruction you use for doing computer things like your underlined here, and text referencing. I liked your penny story, and I know I have some found as a kid. Twice I wrote to you about blob tops. I have at least 50 of them. They were early applied glass rings of lifted glass that were applied and tooled with a tool shaping them to a round cork finish. I have two quart salesmans sample bottles with blob tops. One is from the "/ Flying Star" "/ Star Bottling Works ", "/ Elmira, N.Y. ". all of that in script lettering. The star form even has a bird with wings in the center of it. Making Company and one is from the "/ C.HOUSE "glass company in "/ONEIDA, N.Y.". I don't have it here right now but I have a third one for the Elmira Glass Company".I have some sodas and other black glass blob tops -I think most of them precede the tapered applied bottle tops. RED Matthews

 

[Robby Raccoon]

Re: My oldest and most valuable find to date:

Yeah, I typed up one long post for an hour and a half-- inserting my blue linked-words to pictures that I take or other informative things (these blue are all from today-- just can't help but to show-off cute wildlife at my house) and filling it with research and select photos-- once when suddenly I lost it all. []I got so ****ed-off. LOL.It wasn't the first time-- once, though, I got it back somehow? Are you asking me to research your bottles? I'm not sure of what you mean? I got a few bottles lately. One (rare.) Two (likely scarce-rare.) Three. Four, five, and six (final is rare.) Seven through twenty-four.... LOL. Twenty-five and nearly one more.... The last and this one make twenty-seven in a way but not really.... All these make twenty-eight and three/fourths.... Okay, I'm being ridiculous now. []