Silver 3 cent jewelry find

My parents recently purchased a new house and upon moving in they found a small box containing a silver thrime strand. They passed it along to me so I snapped a few photos which are below. I'd love to know the best way to bring them back from the dead. I plan to clip the loops which are providing the rust. Is there a way to remove the rusty residue without harsh silver cleaners? I gave them a quick acetone bath but it didn't do much. Unfortunately, the holes are through the dates on most of them but there are a couple visible. I photoed a few of the better ones.
Needless to say, an exciting find!!!

 

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Ouch! That pains me. And several looked like they were in very nice condition until the holes, that is.

I don't know, unfortunately they are toast. Others will chime in with their remedies. I kinda like it as is, as a conversation piece.

 

It killed me to see the damage as well. I think these, especially the type 3 large star two lines, are some of the most beautiful US coins.

 

Yep, I agree.

 

The damage makes it hurt all over. You can do lots with them but even if they were professionally separated, cleaned and plugged they would still be damaged. What a shame.

 

Maybe take some pliers and see if you can get the clasps off without damaging/scratching the coin. It looks like they've formed rust and that is not good for the silver but can most likely be cleaned. If I were you I'd clean each piece with water and maybe rub gently with a cloth rag/towel, so long as they don't leave hairlines. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done about the holes, but the trimes really do have very appealing details.

p.s. Try looking around the house, maybe metal detecting the yard. If there is history like that in the house I bet there'd be something sticking around.

 

I think this is awesome. I have several items like this, and my advice is to clean it, and keep it for what it is: a very cool piece of numismatic jewelry from a bygone era.

 

I think we’re beyond “hairlines.” Clean away, I don’t think you can further damage the numismatic value of these coins.

 

My thoughts exactly. The hay is in the barn as they say. I'll give them a dip and see what happens.

 

The holes are a heart breaker but some of these dates can be rare.
You'll have to check them carefully 1 by 1.

 

By all means clip the loops. Then, water soak, acetone soak, probably use a dip like eZest or even lemon juice to remove as much of the rust possible. Then consider taking them to a jeweler and having them re-strung with silver, or even 10K or so gold. It would look lovely.

 

Clip the loops. Dip them in coin dip and have a good professional jeweler use sterling loops to reconnect and you’d have an interesting and beautiful piece of jewelry. Their numismatic value is minimal but as a numismatic jewelry piece they’re very cool

 

I'd leave them alone

nice set

 

those look like standard split rings, the same type split rings (though larger) type used for your car keys. I would go to a jeweler and get them cut off and replaced with silver alloy rings (non split type) so that you don't get continued rust all over the place.

Those holes also would not "plug" very cleanly. You can see a bunch of metal raised up around the holes, not flush at all. So I would keep it a bracelet.


or even use a few of them to make a nice Christmas ornament for the upcoming Secret Santa

edit:except for the rare ones as mentioned.

 

Again, some of the trimes are very rare, and even with the holes I would keep those set aside.

 

I went ahead and separated the coins from their "mountings". I first separated them into discernable dates and non-discernable dates. Then I separated the dated ones into the three star types.
Results below:

 

The rust bothers me. Why I’d give them a quick dip. I think as jewelry they’re the most appealing as holed coins don’t appeal to me. I bought my wife a seated dime love token bracelet

 

I intend to give them a quick dip to remove the rust but my eZest has disappeared. I'll update images when it is found.

 

Are all 3 types of trimes represented?