I metal detect, and I found these but didn't know if because they were in the ground if that means they are worthless? .
my knowledge only encompasses coins with precious metal content of 90% or more. there is definitely numismatic value in other coins. be very careful about cleaning them when you yank them out of the ground. careful as in - don't.
I don't clean them, just run them under warm water to knock the loose dirt off, then let them air dry, I have been detecting a lot of years, just decided to start keeping what I find, and adding more.
I have a few ground find Civil War Tokens. The first thing that usually happens in the finder will scrub the dirt off by hand, which leaves scratches across the surface and greatly limits the coins value as a collectable. The tokens I have purchased are the rarest tokens. It's just that I'm that desperate to find really rare tokens. LOL
Yeah I think at this point what you're searching for is this...when you pull them out do not clean them, maybe and I stress maybe a light rinse but then let air dry. Do not rub them clean as that will cause scratches on the coin. I can't speak to any value as I don't know your dates/mint marks but cleaning will surely destroy any value that they may have outside of their silver content.
I do watch for that, luckily, except for Buffalo Nickels, the Kansas Ground is pretty gentle on coins. I have seen many destroy them in person and video, its hard to watch them smear the dirt to see the date.
If nothing else they're worth their silver content which is usually way more than face value so that's a plus.
I may of posted the wrong coins for the discussion, here, would these be considered junk? I know that silver usually goes for silver, I was more asking about non-silver coins.
Folks here have consistently advised me against using an ultrasonic bath to clean coins, but with finds like those, I would be sorely tempted. It's probably still not a good idea, but with corrosion already visible, there's less to lose. For those cents, I'd think VerdiCare would be the second line of attack, right after a distilled-water soak...?
To answer your question Digger, yes, as general rule most coins found in the ground are junk. In other words they have little to no numismatic value. Are there exceptions ? Of course there are, but the very nature of exceptions means they don't come along very often.
It all depends on the coin. Your 1887 indian head cent isn't worth much even though it has some detail because of the corrosion from being in the ground (a dollar or less). but if that had been an 1877, just ten years earlier, even in that condition it would probably be worth a few hundred dollars. It all depends on the coin. there have been coins found with metal detector that have brought five figures. It all depends on the coin.
So I need to watch for key dates? I collect the ones that look cool to me, I don't really care about value, if it's cool it stays, if it's silver, it goes lol, usually. Sent from my ZTE V768 using Tapatalk 2
Definitely watch for key dates and mint marks - all of them. The key dates and such would be the easiest to unload and make some money on. Also there are a few varieties like the 42/1 merc dime that you should look for.
