I have a couple buffalo nickels and mercury dimes and things like that that I've pulled up over the years with a metal detector (I used to live at the beach so they were exposed to 50+ years of salt water). Some of them are so badly degraded that you can barely tell what they are, like below "G" grade. Will it still diminish the "value" if a coin with no date and whose features can barely be discerned is cleaned? I would at least like to get the mercs that I have to the point that you can actually tell they are silver, but for now I just keep them in a ziplock bag in a dusty corner of my safe. What do other detectorists do?
Sell the silver for melt. As for the other, non-silver; coins, a lot of dealers have stuff like that in their bargain bins for $.50-$1.
I started an album for the cool stuff I have dug over the years. Nothing fancy, just 2X2s in vinyl pages in a binder. I have no problem cleaning the heck out on a coin that is worthless in it's current condition.
Smear the pennies and nickels with Vaseline and leave them for 2 weeks - it will improve their appearance. I bought a White's Coinmaster IV in 1970, at the big (then) metal detector superstore in Oscoda, Michigan, and enjoyed getting outdoors, but seldom kept the coins I dug up, they were all common.
I would normally never say these words, but here goes... It wouldn't diminish the value to clean them. A rock tumbler seems to be a popular choice. Oh, that feels better.
I knew the rock tumbler was going to show up. It did happen faster than I expected though. Know anyone with a sandblaster? It works great on clad coins! :devil:
Your like of understanding on how to do it properly shows . Carry on as i need a few more laughs. When a coin was used for what it was made for how often do you think it got cleaned while it was inside ones pocket while he was walking? How many times did it get washed by mistake? And how many times was it lost and found rubbed clean with the fingers or a damp cloth? But if it happen to be that almost never used coin that got misplaced for a hundred years well yea that one was most likely never cleaned. Only a coin that never got into circulation has never been cleaned.
