Never thought id be this mad to find a seated QUARTER

[borntohunt460]

Didn't even know what it was til I got it home. How does this happen? To me, this is worse than kittens dying. I'd gladly cherish a worn coin... But this? Please tell me there's some magic solution or cleaning method to fix this besides finding another one. I was told the area I found this was bulldozed to remove dirt so I reckon it brought it closer to the top.

To clean so far, I ran under warm water and dabbed with a makeup brush. The year is 1877 as far as I can tell.

I probably sound like a brat finding a seated and complaining but I know you all will understand

 

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[borntohunt460]

I still have faith that it is salvageable. I think if I use the right method I could get a lot of the crud off. Again it looks like a grey crust in top

I just don't know what I should do next. Continue to give a lemon juice bath?

 

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[Argentium]

Is electrolysis effective on cruddy silver ? Nice Find.

 

[Jason in Enid]

First, look up the date to see if it's a key-date coin. If it's NOT, then quit being so scared! You aren't going to hurt any value by cleaning it. What you will probably need is some electrolysis to clean that coin. The baking soda and tinfoil method is a weak electrolysis. Sometimes that works, sometimes it's not enough.

 

[screwynewy]

I agree with the others about electrolysis. I had a 1/2 Reale that was heavily crusted over with sandy soil and couldn't get it off with other conventional methods. Used an 800 mA cell phone charger on it for about 30 seconds and the crud just fell right off. This left it a little dull so I used baking soda with water and rubbed it lightly and it came out great.

Of course you wouldn't want to do this to a key date coin but if it is as bad as your seated quarter you really have nothing to lose.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Is electrolysis effective on cruddy silver ? Nice Find.

I have found it often the only safe way to clean REALLY cruddy silver. The worst ones I dig come out of lakes and the ocean. You can take sandpaper to them and barely make a dent but a very tiny amount of electrolysis will sometimes cause that black crust to literally fall off. Even if not, it will remove the oxidation by reduction.

 

[borntohunt460]

First, look up the date to see if it's a key-date coin. If it's NOT, then quit being so scared! You aren't going to hurt any value by cleaning it. What you will probably need is some electrolysis to clean that coin. The baking soda and tinfoil method is a weak electrolysis. Sometimes that works, sometimes it's not enough.

I'm not afraid to hurt it. I just wanna know what I should try next of lemon bath didn't work overnight. Any good links to phone charger electrolysis ?

 

[HCW]

if you don't like it, come over to my place and bury it in my lawn.

 

[Nickleanddime]

I'd be happy with it.

 

[Jason in Enid]

I'm not afraid to hurt it. I just wanna know what I should try next of lemon bath didn't work overnight. Any good links to phone charger electrolysis ?

My comment was aimed more generally than just to you, some people act as if rubbing a 1964 roosevelt dime = church heresy. Anyway.... it's really simple to make a electrolysis cleaner. You need a power supply, and a "weaker" one is best for cleaning coins. They should all have a label or tag that tells what their power output is. The voltage isn't really critical but the amperage is! Something around 800 milliamps (mA) is great. Getting too much above 1 amp is getting too agressive. You also need it to have a simple 2-wire output. Next, cut of the component end, split the 2 wires and bare a little bit of the ends. Go to a home improvement store and get 2 alligator clips and connect them to the wires.

Next, you need a container. I like to use an old plastic coffee container because I always seem to have an empty one laying around.

Now, you need your sacrificial metal. You can use something as simple as an old piece of tableware (fork, knife, etc), but there CAN be problems with them, so I just use a piece of flat bar steel. I bend it into a "U" so that it sits in the bottom of the container with on end slightly above the rim.

Your solution is simple, mix a tablespoon of baking soda in water and fill the container.

Now, you need to know which wire lead goes on the coin to be cleaned.... put both alligator clips in the solution (touching nothing else, just the bare clips and DONT LET THEM TOUCH) and plug it in. watch to see which clip is producing most of the bubbles. Label this wire, it's the one you put on the coin.

Now you're ready! Connect the cleaning clip to the coin and the other to your sacrificial metal. Make sure the coin is completely submerged and don't let it get too close or touch the other metal. Experiment and watch it VERY close. I would give it one minute and then take it out and see if it cleans up any. Just keep going a minute at a time until its at the level you are happy with. It will also help if you can bear to make a light scratch on the rim to get the clip to touch bare metal.

Using a baking soda paste is a very mild abrassive that will help clean the coin quicker. It will leave the really clean parts bright and shiny, but that will tone down over time naturally.

 

[jeff of pa]

Fine Sandpaper or Dremel

Awesome Find in any condition !

I know it looks impossible from the pic, but, did you check for a cc ?

 

[WHADIFIND]

It might just be the pics or my eyes, or both. But, this coin looks more to me that it was ground to it's current state. Maybe by being in a gravel road. It just doesn't look like there's a lot of detail to be saved.

If you try too hard to clean this one, I'm afraid you'll only be able to say, this is a seated quarter, you could barely tell it before it was cleaned. But now...

Well, you get the idea.

I'd get it to a recognizable point and then, go look for his brother.

WTG!

 

[borntohunt460]

My comment was aimed more generally than just to you, some people act as if rubbing a 1964 roosevelt dime = church heresy. Anyway.... it's really simple to make a electrolysis cleaner. You need a power supply, and a "weaker" one is best for cleaning coins. They should all have a label or tag that tells what their power output is. The voltage isn't really critical but the amperage is! Something around 800 milliamps (mA) is great. Getting too much above 1 amp is getting too agressive. You also need it to have a simple 2-wire output. Next, cut of the component end, split the 2 wires and bare a little bit of the ends. Go to a home improvement store and get 2 alligator clips and connect them to the wires.

Next, you need a container. I like to use an old plastic coffee container because I always seem to have an empty one laying around.

Now, you need your sacrificial metal. You can use something as simple as an old piece of tableware (fork, knife, etc), but there CAN be problems with them, so I just use a piece of flat bar steel. I bend it into a "U" so that it sits in the bottom of the container with on end slightly above the rim.

Your solution is simple, mix a tablespoon of baking soda in water and fill the container.

Now, you need to know which wire lead goes on the coin to be cleaned.... put both alligator clips in the solution (touching nothing else, just the bare clips and DONT LET THEM TOUCH) and plug it in. watch to see which clip is producing most of the bubbles. Label this wire, it's the one you put on the coin.

Now you're ready! Connect the cleaning clip to the coin and the other to your sacrificial metal. Make sure the coin is completely submerged and don't let it get too close or touch the other metal. Experiment and watch it VERY close. I would give it one minute and then take it out and see if it cleans up any. Just keep going a minute at a time until its at the level you are happy with. It will also help if you can bear to make a light scratch on the rim to get the clip to touch bare metal.

Using a baking soda paste is a very mild abrassive that will help clean the coin quicker. It will leave the really clean parts bright and shiny, but that will tone down over time naturally.

Thanks!! you took a lot of time to detail that out for me. Ill probably try that after I soak in lemon juice a few more days

 

[borntohunt460]

It might just be the pics or my eyes, or both. But, this coin looks more to me that it was ground to it's current state. Maybe by being in a gravel road. It just doesn't look like there's a lot of detail to be saved.

If you try too hard to clean this one, I'm afraid you'll only be able to say, this is a seated quarter, you could barely tell it before it was cleaned. But now...

Well, you get the idea.

I'd get it to a recognizable point and then, go look for his brother.

WTG!

When you say ground down are you thinking that the off-grey areas are ground down into the silver? I am pretty sure that this is crud on the surface because when I run a toothpick along one of the exposed shiny areas, it is stopped when it gets to the edge of the grey crust, indicating that the crud is raised.

it was , however, next to an old gravel road that used to be the main route out of dayton

 

[SusanMN]

Six years hunting, found silver dimes, a silver thimble, gold and silver rings, but not one darn silver quarter in all that time. So I'm very jealous of your great find.

 

[WHADIFIND]

When you say ground down are you thinking that the off-grey areas are ground down into the silver? I am pretty sure that this is crud on the surface because when I run a toothpick along one of the exposed shiny areas, it is stopped when it gets to the edge of the grey crust, indicating that the crud is raised.

it was , however, next to an old gravel road that used to be the main route out of dayton

Well, I like to think I have a pretty good eye for seeing coins that have promise for cleaning. Unfortunately, your pics make it very difficult to tell for me. What I think I'm seeing is a sort of tell tale scratching that looks like when one puts something on a coarse surface, under pressure and it slides along in one direction. Like being stepped on.

It is still a pretty rare thing to even find one nowadays. It's your coin, of course. But, I'd think about cleaning it too much. For your own sake, not for any value. Just a cautionary word.

Enjoy your find!

 

[borntohunt460]

For the record I would never recommend to anyone that they spit in aluminum foil and wrap it around a silver coin.

I won't post pictures to spare everyone

 

[pepperj]

For the record I would never recommend to anyone that they spit in aluminum foil and wrap it around a silver coin.

I won't post pictures to spare everyone

Done it lots of times with hammered and milled silvers, the worse part is stinking up the whole room.

Oh ya, WTG on getting the old silver and best of luck on the clean up of the coin.

 

[borntohunt460]

So this coin was pretty toasted so I had nothing to loose. Lemon juice literally did nothing. Baking soda and aluminum foil did nothing.

As soon as I spit in aluminum foil and wrapped it up a violent reaction took place. The sulphur filled the kitchen the coin was hot and I could feel it bubbling inside. I took off the foil at this point because it seemed so intense. The black was literally falling off. Unfortunately I think it took some spots of the coin with it. Using a toothpick I was able to remove almost all black. There were small holes in the aluminum foil?

The resulting surface was spots of shiny silver and dull grey patches. I was able to make out the features better and even see a "S" mint mark. The picture below was taken on my phone through my 10x. There's enough detail to make out the seated liberty and eagle but the tone variations thoughout make it hard to see. Steel wool at this point? Lol

 

[RobRieman]

It's your coin so you have to make up your own mind on the cleaning. It's worth about $15 max book value, you can buy one at a flee market for $5 in that condition. What makes it worth so much to you is that YOU found it! That's why we love this hobby. Make a baking soda paste and rub the @*#% out of it between your fingers and enjoy it for what it is.

 

[screwynewy]

It looks like your coin was in a fire the way the edges are rounded over and there is so little detail to be seen. Anyway, its a great find that many will never have the experience of digging.