The coins pictured were recovered from a cache. They had been buried in highly mineralized soil for nearly a century. Worse, they were placed in a glass container with a steel lid. That meant all the rust and corrosion from the lid added to whatever corrosive material washed into the bottle. The good news is that these Morgans were circulated coins before they were buried. Nothing of any extraordinary value was debased by the long exposure to the elements. The bad news is that nothing I do can ever restore them to the condition they were in when they were interred. The best I had hoped for was to enable those inspecting the coins to be able to clearly see the features, especially the dates and mint marks. To that end, I carefully applied a small amount of Dawn detergent to a very soft-bristled toothbrush and worked the worst of the dirt off each coin under running water. I then soaked each individual coin in lemon juice for a minimum of ten minutes before rinsing and drying with a soft cotton cloth. The results, as you see, preserve the history of the burial in the form of individual stains and pitting, but permit the salient features to be easily identified.
For more on the story behind these coins, go to the "What Is It Worth?" forum and look under "Small Treasure."
For more on the story behind these coins, go to the "What Is It Worth?" forum and look under "Small Treasure."
