Success at the hard-rock coin mine, nickel trifecta and Standing Liberty quarter

[Plumbata]

Yesterday I had an appetite for finding me some treasure, and after investigating an old claim I came home with some promising samples of coin-ore, as well as some loose alluvial specimens of a promising age and composition and associated anthropogenic baubles; good indicators for worthwhile deposits.




A fine specimen of coin-bearing lode material, with a 1925 silver quarter on the left above my thumb and 1919 wheat on the right. Incidentally, upon crushing and assay, a 1941-S Jefferson Nickel was also revealed.




After an obnoxious cleaning and refining process, I was left with:

2x 1919, 1934-D, 1945, and 1947-S wheats
1912-D V-Nickel
1926 Buffalo in relatively decent shape
1941-S Jefferson
1925 Standing Liberty
And an amusing old "Home Sweet Home" Indian in a teepee figurine






Not the best values I've ever seen but you'll hear no complaints from this miner!



Also, a bit earlier yesterday I had hit the goodwill and found some pewter and a nice ugly piece of weighted Sterling for 50 cents:



After putting the poor thing out of its misery it yielded 79.76g, which represents 2.37 Ozt of pure silver. I've got a metal furnace and am collecting scrap to cast into "Sterling knuckles" much like the pedestrian Brass variety, but crafted for those who desire to impart a refined and lustrous flavor to their knuckle sandwiches

 

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[Truth]

Incredible finds!! Not sure what’s more incredible the finds or the cleaning process lol

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!!

 

[Argentium]

Well over 2 troy oz's of pure silver for 50 cents is never ugly in my world ! That's $30. (close to it)

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Awesome finds and coin removal!

 

[washingtonian]

What type of site produces coin chunks like that? Strange but cool!

 

[A2coins]

Well done good few days

 

[Whyme]

Wow nice finds and cleaning! Love the Home Sweet Home!

 

[Hawks88]

You did a great job removing and cleaning those coins. Congrats on your finds including the the big silver find.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Very nice finds, and extraction / cleaning method.

 

[Reanm8er]

Very cool, congrats! I like trolling for cheap silver too. Sometimes you find things with researchable hallmarks worth a great deal of money. Good luck!

 

[Plumbata]

Thanks everyone, the cleaning was ridiculous and involved a combination of electrolysis, CLR soaking, aluminum foil/baking soda, chipping at crust with bamboo skewers and rubbing with a pink eraser. The copper color of the nickels isn't staining, but I believe the 75% Copper 25% Nickel alloy had the Nickel leached out the surface leaving behind the copper.

What type of site produces coin chunks like that? Strange but cool!

Coin mines, duh!


OK ok, urban freshwater deposits where hydrodynamic sorting concentrates heavies like iron and coins. Find and mine-out the rusty accretions and break them to bits to reveal hidden goodies. So if you have any creeks with bedrock bottom or very old channelized streams going through town then they will have deposits like this, sometimes still loose and sometimes fused together, it depends.

No detectors were used (not like they'd work anyway), just my nose and noggin.

 

[washingtonian]

Thanks everyone, the cleaning was ridiculous and involved a combination of electrolysis, CLR soaking, aluminum foil/baking soda, chipping at crust with bamboo skewers and rubbing with a pink eraser. The copper color of the nickels isn't staining, but I believe the 75% Copper 25% Nickel alloy had the Nickel leached out the surface leaving behind the copper.




Coin mines, duh!


OK ok, urban freshwater deposits where hydrodynamic sorting concentrates heavies like iron and coins. Find and mine-out the rusty accretions and break them to bits to reveal hidden goodies. So if you have any creeks with bedrock bottom or very old channelized streams going through town then they will have deposits like this, sometimes still loose and sometimes fused together, it depends.

No detectors were used (not like they'd work anyway), just my nose and noggin.

Fascinating. That's really ingenious. I've never heard of anyone doing that. Nice job!

 

[Bass]

Great finds plumb! Congratulations

 

[Rookster]

Nice finds. Man, that's a lot of cleaning and well worth it.

 

[DirtDigginDan]

Wow, and I`ve just been searching regular dirt.