GavinoGambino
Full Member
So this part of town (St. Paul, MN) has given me a few indians this year, but the majority of them come out of the ground heavily crusted. When i say crusty i mean so bad that finding a date seems impossible and from the condition these coins come out of the ground all i really want is to get a date because almost all monetary value is non existent from the moment they leave the dirt.
I tried using the peroxide method multiple times, each time applying baking soda while brushing with a tooth brush. Little to nothing at all was being removed so i tried baking the coins in the oven at different temps for a half hour to an hour or so. After baking them id put them in a plastic container and shake them up for a bit and this proved to knock some of the crud off of them but not even enough to get any wording or dates off of the coins. I tried baking again and then freezing the coins immediately after baking them to see if the expanding and contracting of the metal could knock anymore of the crap off. The same little results as before.
After realizing these "lesser invasive" methods werent going to get me anything i decided to go to the vinegar and salt method. Id done this method on copper memorials prior and it really seemed to clean them up well but leave them with almost a matted texture and they all turned very pink. Not really caring about the condition of the coins after this type of cleaning i decided to try it with these crustys. After leaving the coins in the Vinegar and Salt for about a half hour, i took the coins out and started to brush them and immediately the crude started to pop off with features starting to show underneath. Once i saw it was working i put them back in and the crud started to pop off the coin and float around the solution.
I dont know how many times i did this with a few scrubs of baking soda in between but here is the finished result. The picture with 2 coins are actually the same coin before and after in the exact same position (added together via photoshop), to give you an idea of how much crud was on the coin to start with and how much was removed. The obverse was just as bad as the reverse with no idea of any of the numbers in the date. Clearly after the treatments the date is 100% readable as shown in the other photo.
I know the destruction this method does to coppers but like i said i was just trying to identify what i had found so i posted this for others who have similar conditioned coins and have tried to recover a date with no luck.
Hope this helps! -Gavin
I tried using the peroxide method multiple times, each time applying baking soda while brushing with a tooth brush. Little to nothing at all was being removed so i tried baking the coins in the oven at different temps for a half hour to an hour or so. After baking them id put them in a plastic container and shake them up for a bit and this proved to knock some of the crud off of them but not even enough to get any wording or dates off of the coins. I tried baking again and then freezing the coins immediately after baking them to see if the expanding and contracting of the metal could knock anymore of the crap off. The same little results as before.
After realizing these "lesser invasive" methods werent going to get me anything i decided to go to the vinegar and salt method. Id done this method on copper memorials prior and it really seemed to clean them up well but leave them with almost a matted texture and they all turned very pink. Not really caring about the condition of the coins after this type of cleaning i decided to try it with these crustys. After leaving the coins in the Vinegar and Salt for about a half hour, i took the coins out and started to brush them and immediately the crude started to pop off with features starting to show underneath. Once i saw it was working i put them back in and the crud started to pop off the coin and float around the solution.
I dont know how many times i did this with a few scrubs of baking soda in between but here is the finished result. The picture with 2 coins are actually the same coin before and after in the exact same position (added together via photoshop), to give you an idea of how much crud was on the coin to start with and how much was removed. The obverse was just as bad as the reverse with no idea of any of the numbers in the date. Clearly after the treatments the date is 100% readable as shown in the other photo.
I know the destruction this method does to coppers but like i said i was just trying to identify what i had found so i posted this for others who have similar conditioned coins and have tried to recover a date with no luck.
Hope this helps! -Gavin
