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    The tall one in the center says “FURST – McNESS CO; FREEPORT, ILL.”

Fun fact: the Freeport high school mascot is the Pretzels.

On the topic of patina, I'll take the coin collector perspective: dirt adds nothing other than dirt, and removing dirt removes nothing of value. Rubbing, however small or soft, will always scratch the surface, though. That makes the surface unoriginal and less desirable.

But it's yours and was the right price, so who cares? I saw a video earlier this year about an extremely nice coin that the owner did something to, dropping it's value by 90%. My recollection is the owner bought the 1850 gold double eagle ($20 coin) for $110,000, and the video was from a dealer hoping to sell it for $10-$12,000.