I went back to the same church/school site that gave up the nice 2 center and Barber half last weekend. Had fun again today. Found two seated dimes! Which isn't to common a feat. I have only done this once before and they both were half dimes. Also cool that one is a CC mint mark, only my 2nd. The 75 is a S mint mark. Full liberty in the shield and all. They were tough to dig out too, inbetween roots. They were about 5 feet apart from each other. Also found two fatties. 1861s They don't hold up to well in the ground. Made out of nickel. If I tried to clean em they would look worse than they do. Been there done that. Also got the real nice 1887 Indian. The pic of her is after a peroxide bath. Fun spot this is. Still more ground to cover too.
I also did some metal detecting today---a friend had built a fencefor their new house and wanted to make sure there wern't any nails left around for the house to get in its foot---so I found 4-5 nails and 1 large staple.....I will add that I saw most of the nails laying on top of the dirt before the detector found them Speedy
Wow, nice coins! You make me want to go metal detecting now. I guess I'll have to wait for a bad day to come and go to the park right after a rain (when no one is around to bug me while I'm detecting.) Awesome coins man.
Forgot I had this one... Thanks guys...remembered this morning that I had found another Indian head penny yesterday. Checked my pouch that I keep my finds in and sure enough there she sat. Here she is before and after a bath. Needs some more soaking but still a cool find.
Jim, What did the 1887 look like before the peroxide bath and how long did you soak the coin? I have never tried peroxide but it appears that it really brings the coins back to life! Frank
Will the peroxide take off green stuff (verdigrize I think it's called) from copper coins also? Has anybody ever tried this?
Our local coin dealer gave Thalia two Canada large cents as "special change" from her purchase and they have a lot of green stuff also. He recommended that we put them in a jar with some olive oil for a couple of weeks to help get the green stuff off. The two coins are not really collectible at all (rough shape otherwise) but it might be interesting to try this. Jim, great finds as usual!
It may remove some of the surface corrosion caused by the verdigris but it won't won't remove it all. And more importantly it won't stop it from continuing the corrosion process. It would also mean that you would now have coins with another contaminant (olive oil ) on them and that will need to be removed. There are situations in which coins should be cleaned. Those situatations are when the coin has PVC or verdigris on it, or when a coin has been found in the ground ( such as Jim's ) or in the sea, or when toning has reached the point that it is causing corrosion. In all of these situations if the cleaning is not performed the coin will only be damaged further until it reaches the point where the coin is totally unrecognizable. Now, when any of these things happen and the coin needs cleaned it should be cleaned first of all with a process that is going to work for the situation at hand. To do otherwise will only cause even more damage. In each of these situations there are specific cleaning agents that will work, but typically they will only work one and sometimes two of them. For the others it will be a waste of time. So please - if you need to clean your coins, use the right product for the right situation.
Listen to GDJMSP. I just know what works for me and would never try to tell folks how to clean coins. The peroxide method I use for dug up copper coins works for what I want. It can bleach out some coins if left in too long plus it depends what the condition of the coin is in before I plop it in. Jim
