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Need a little copper help!

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Ok, I'll be the first to admit that I know little on copper so I thought I'd throw this out to the copper experts among us. A few months back, I bought this 1866 2-cent piece for my set, but unlike the rest which range from G to F, this was what I felt was a solid XF (I still can't grade copper very well). Anyhow, it seems like it has some dark, odd purplish toning (sorry it doesn't show up well in the photos) and was wondering if this could be AT, or some other method of doctoring? I think I may send it to ANACS, but would like to avoid the BB if possible. THANKS!

 

1866 Obverse

1866 Reverse

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Do you see any evidence of pitting on the surface? The purple could have come from an earlier cleaning attempt that removed the PVC and exposed some copper to cause a chemical reaction with the cleaning. Sort of the same thing as the blue/purple Indian head cents. That'd be the first thing I would suggest to look for. Outside of that suggestion, I didn't really see anything that jumped out at me.

 

Neil

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Well, I whipped out my loupe, and I didn't notice any pitting (though there may have been some on the reverse but barely visible under 10X). You can see a lot of cool stuff with a loupe, nice denticles and interesting wear patterns.

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Jeff,

 

Your picture isn't very good; the shadow is distracting. But, from what I can see, it looks like a nice delicious chocolate color to me.

 

Smell the coin. Seriously. Oftentimes, you can detect the odor of a cleaned coin.

 

EVP

 

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It's not a big deal, I didn't pay much for the coin, I was just hoping more than anything to learn more about copper, which I did (look for pitting and blue/purple toning is not good). I would do the show thing, but rarely are the services represented at the local shows here (why is that?), and either way, ANACS economy is only $12, and that works out to less than 25 cents a day!

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In my best estimation from what I can see in the photos the coin looks more or less original. It could go either way. Many 19th century copper was cleaned, but the cleaning methods were usually more like brasso than trying to achieve AT. Most "old cleaning" copper has an orange hue to it and a lack of luster (along with some pitting).

 

Pitting can be caused by anything from planchet defects to improper storage. It is knocked around by the grading companies, but ANACS will happily slab it.

 

The dark purplish toning could likely be from a reaction to the chemicals in whatever the coin was stored in (usually for a longer period of time). Acetone, if overused, will create a bluish/purplish color on copper, and from the shine of the devices on your coin, it appears this may be the case. Acetone will not hurt the overall grade of the coin unless it is overused. A quick dip or a quick q-tip dabbed on is no problem, but some people get a little zealous and turn a good coin bad with it.

 

I really couldn't recommend anything to you without either having a much better image (nothing wrong with yours other than it's dark, but for something like this much more detail would be required) or seeing the coin in person.

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