Ken,
No doubt about it - that's a butt-ugly coin. ;-)
I see very patchy
patina, in at least 2-3 differently colored layers plus the exposed
pink of the underlying copper. The lettering, and the devices on the
reverse (except the N) look very sharply defined, as do the legends on
obverse. So they are unlikely to loose out on stripping. It's the
bust that scares me, that
red, pebbly patch on the cheek looks scabrous and might lead to some deep pits if the coin is stripped.
The idea of trying something else before nuking the coin is a
good one. I never use olive oil, unlike the other poster, but that's worth a try. It literally can't hurt and only causes a little delay.
I might also try a wash of sodium hexametaphosphate, which might
help clean up some of the very pale
patina (which I presume is that directly on the copper surface which means the darker patches are on top of the lighter green). I use this in a 5% solution for short soaks (5-20
min) to try to loosen up grime and junk on very hard and dirty coins. At this concentration it is relatively safe for
patina and won't etch any exposed metal. at 15% it will strip all
patina, other corrosion products, and possibly etch the metal, which is not a
good thing, though there are ways to lesson the risk of this.
I'll respond more tomorrow with more info on this tactic and a link to source material.
How would you strip the coin? Chemically or via
electrolysis? If chemically, what substances do you use?
Mark