1909 VDB - Wood Grain 1 1

[WHIZard23]

Hello everyone

New collector here. I got a 1909 VDB Lincoln Wheat from my late grandpa's set. The details are clear but because of the Wood-graining, it's got a black tarnish on it. I am absolutely not going to attempt to clean it but should I send this in for restoration (if that's even possible)? I think the details are good and the color/luster underneath looks promising. 

[Just Bob]

Welcome to the forum.

There are some areas that are showing up as green on my phone, particularly in front of Lincoln's bust below the date, and behind it next to LIBERTY. How has this coin been stored? 

I actually like the toning on this one, by the way. If that isn't PVC residue on there, I would leave it as is.

[J P M]

It is a nice looking cent it may just be the photo making the green tint. The coin has a lot of detail I think it would grade well but may not be high enough to offset the cost of grading.

Edited May 29, 2023 by J P M

[Sandon]

    Welcome to the NGC chat board. 

    This "wood grain" appearance is a normal toning pattern for cents of this era. It can't be removed by any method that would leave an appearance that would be acceptable to collectors.  NCS would likely determine that the coin couldn't be improved by conservation and charge a $5 evaluation fee, plus the coin would have to be graded by NGC for a $23 Economy Tier grading fee a $10 processing fee, a $28 return shipping fee, and your cost of shipping the coin to NGC. (The minimum cost for NCS conservation if it were found to be appropriate would be $25, and the other costs mentioned would also apply.) In either case, this cost would likely exceed the retail value of this brown mint state 1909 V.D.B. Lincoln cent with a sizeable nick in Lincoln's beard.

[ldhair]

I would leave the coin as is and put it in some type of holder for protection. 

[Coinbuf]

I grade your coin as MS63BN, the hit on the lower jaw line and the corrosion spot at the forehead/hairline are the limiting grade factors.   As such the retail value is not high enough to warrant grading, however, if you are wanting to have it placed into a slab for sentimental reasons that may outweigh the cost/value equation.   This specked woodgrain look is very common on many of the late Indian Head cents as well as the first couple of years of the Lincoln cent production.    Should you decided to have the coin graded it would not hurt to have NCS review the coin, just know in advance that in my opinion there is nothing that NCS can do for the coin.  My 1909 S over inverted S mintmark, and one of my 1916-S coins have that same speckled toning look, it does not bother me personally but I will say that this type of toning can make getting a nice photo challenging.

 

[WHIZard23]

On 5/28/2023 at 11:05 PM, Just Bob said:

Welcome to the forum.

There are some areas that are showing up as green on my phone, particularly in front of Lincoln's bust below the date, and behind it next to LIBERTY. How has this coin been stored? 

I actually like the toning on this one, by the way. If that isn't PVC residue on there, I would leave it as is.

Hi Bob, its been stored in a wood/glass case.

[WHIZard23]

On 5/29/2023 at 7:09 AM, Sandon said:

    Welcome to the NGC chat board. 

    This "wood grain" appearance is a normal toning pattern for cents of this era. It can't be removed by any method that would leave an appearance that would be acceptable to collectors.  NCS would likely determine that the coin couldn't be improved by conservation and charge a $5 evaluation fee, plus the coin would have to be graded by NGC for a $23 Economy Tier grading fee a $10 processing fee, a $28 return shipping fee, and your cost of shipping the coin to NGC. (The minimum cost for NCS conservation if it were found to be appropriate would be $25, and the other costs mentioned would also apply.) In either case, this cost would likely exceed the retail value of this brown mint state 1909 V.D.B. Lincoln cent with a sizeable nick in Lincoln's beard.

Geez Louise, yeah, that's not worth it.

[JT2]

yes its a good looking Lincoln .  leave it as it is and she will love you back!

[RWB]

1909 Lincoln cents were saved in large quantities in August-Sept 1909. They continue to show up in older bags of wheat-back cents.

[powermad5000]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I can say having sent several coins to NCS for conservation, there are things that conservation cannot do. The coin although largely uncirculated (does have some hits), it was stored improperly. Conservation cannot reverse damage already done to the surface. As for metals, it is not as simple as just removing the darkened toning and suddenly the red color comes back. I think if NCS were to conserve this coin, it would not return to its original red color but would be spotty and blotchy in color. For a coin that would grade somewhere between MS 63 and MS 64 (imho), there are many examples as @RWB stated that were saved and are rich in red color without imperfections which is what most collectors would pay premium dollars for. There are some collectors who like coins with toning such as this but once again will not pay premium dollars for it (some of the rainbow Morgans are an exception to this and have gotten astronomical albeit ridiculous prices the more rainbowed and strangely toned they are). I do not think you would recover any of the costs to submit this coin especially as a single coin submission. I would keep the coin and store it properly from now in a quality filp.