THE GREAT SHARK PIT COOKIES CLEANING EXPERIMENT

[hollowpointred]

i was getting ready to say lobsterman that conservator has actually been quite helpfull on this experiment.(and pretty much every other post hes made).i agree that this thread is awesome and flakey coin or not .........this has been a success! you have been able to identify and date the coin which i thought would never happen when i first saw that cookie! well done floater!

 

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[dano91]

OK someone said Honey hole! I thought it was an outhouse dig!!!

 

[cavtrooper]

Floater,

I found this site and thought it may help you in your quest. I think you may find that a diluted solution of muriatic acid may be a better alternative for silver coins than Electrolysis. Silver is a noble metal and is not harmed by acid. However, if you read through the suggestions on this site you may find something better.
http://www.coinusmaximus.us/cleaning_silver_coins.htm

 

[Ilovetodig]

Floater,

I can't tell from your pictures but have you been able to identify this coin yet?

 

[DiggerDude101]

Great Job Floater!!!!!!!!!!!

You got me so I want to go rebuild my electrolysis equipment using a Folgers tub. (Mine is a tuperware dish, a silver spoon, and a old recharger off a battery drill with aligator clips)

This has helped alot of MDers learn what to do and what "not" to do. But remember All "Never Clean OLD Coins" you think might be valuable.

Hey another use for your Folgers tubs. Save One for Quarters, One for Dimes, One for Nickels, etc (then go out and bury it for future MDers.)

Again your doing a great job.
Keep up the good work Floater.

 

[Floater]

OK DidggerDude Thanks!

Ilovetodig ,we have not been able to Identify yet and the coin is still in the same condition. I haven't worked with it since those photos.

CavTrooper, Thanks. I will read it and do appreciate any guidance. If any of you see something that refers to this let me know.I love to read and this will hopefully help us all.

Dano My dirtymind was at work and I thought you were going to say something else.

Hollow and everyone. Lobster pointed out he was just giving Conservator a little Poke. I didn't see the harm in it and honestly I hope Conservator has a little thicker skin than that. Rob just wanted to Point out that Conservator was helping behind the scene as well.
I know how we all can be when we get going on a subject around here and its not pretty. LOL ( it is fun though)
I also believe Conservator has a very busy schedule and if I had the pressuer of keeping 15000 artifacts going and cataloging I would probably not enjoy the time I have now to devote to Treasure Net. We'll wait to discuss our off color topics with Conservator at a later date. Just Kiddin Conservator. I'm off work this afternoon so guess what I,m doing. TOO THE BEACH> Later. I'll post some stuff tonight.HH

 

[Floater]

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

THE BARBER HAS LEFT THE BUILDING​

Well the experiment has ended for the first coin as well as the second one.
First we will discuss the first one.
The original concept and goal was to see what we could do, and what methods we could utilize, to clean the Sand Cookies from The Shark Pit. The Shark Pit as we all know, is in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
The exact location remains a secret for now due to permission granted by the land holders and the original group that researched and discovered this site.
The first effort was to use Electrolysis to clean these coins. A few mistakes were made and we ended up destroying completely one coin at the start.
We then concentrated on the larger coin now known as the Barber. The pictures from the Previous posts and the explanations of the progress were made and we were able to finally see some detail in the coin.
Two details eluded us though in the end. The fourth number of the Date and the possibility of a Mint mark.
The Date we were able to verify was 189? The mint mark if any was not there . This would suggest the coin was minted in Philidelphia.
After trying mechanical cleaning and chemical cleaning the coin in the end was too deteriorated too establish those Items. I have posted all the pictures of the Barber in chronological order until its demise in the Photo Gallery.
http://www.treasurenet.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=78

Here are some of the final shots of the Barber Before it disintegrated.
?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

 

[Floater]

OK here are the actual Pictures that show the final condition before the coin Crumbled.
Picture one is the coin after about 4 hours of gently swabbing and cleaning the surface of the coin with a Qtip and a small thin paint brush. I used three chemicals in this process. Alcohol, Oxalic acid. (mild ,diluted solution) and TarnX. These chemicals were readily available to me and right or wrong we were able to get some more cleaning done and some more defintion as explained in the pictures below. I have packaged up the remains of the coins here and shipped them back to Rtde3. I will start the second batch of coins soon and we will see what is going on in Conservators post also. The second coin pictures will get posted tonight so we will have more info to see, just be patient. Thanks for all the support.
~Floater~

 

[Ilovetodig]

Floater, what happened to the second coin? Did it give up the ghost and fade away or is it still kicking?

 

[Floater]

Floater, what happened to the second coin? Did it give up the ghost and fade away or is it still kicking?

Well it did give up the ghost and it was an Indian head penny. I am posting the picture's of its stages here but i think we are going to start a new Topic for the next batch of coins. These pics are hard to make out because this coin deterioated very quickly.

 

[Floater]

More of the same coin. You have to use your imagination a little. I think i lost the pics of the other side before it deterioated. will try to see if they are on my other computer.

 

[Floater]

And some more Pics of the second coin. This thread is so big now it is slower than molasses trying to open.

 

[Floater]

And some more of this coin.

 

[Ilovetodig]

Thanks Floater for the update. Its just too bad about the coin though. At least it's identity is no longer a mystery. I will keep following you progress with the second batch you do. I'll just have to find the new thread.

Good luck and I hope they come out intact this time.

 

[Floater]

OK Gang . Thanks for the Encouragement. I am going to do a conclusion to this thread but may not get to it for a couple of days. We will start a new Topic for the other three coins. I expect this should be pretty cool since Conservator may be enlightening us on his end as well. Just a little teaser for the next topic. " We Have Wings on our Head".?
HH
~Floater~

 

[Ilovetodig]

Mercury dimes!!!!!!

 

[Noodle]

Thanks to you, Floater, we now know a few things that makes the cookie crumble.

This thread is murder to load now. Hurry up and start the new one! This is veeeerrrry interesting!!

- Noodle

 

[JakePhelps]

At lest we knew what it was instead of always looking at those cookies and saying i wonder whats in those?

You did a great job documenting the process you used to clean em. Looking forward to the new thread

 

[Floater]

Ilovetodig is correct . I should have made it more Cryptic.

I hear ya Noodle. ?Thats why we are going to a new thread. Im on a T1 line and Im still having trouble loading it. I really put Marcs old servers to work on this one. LOL ?

Thanks Jake. I really think Im getting another Hobby out of this too.

Im working on the conclusion in Word so I just have to Copy and paste when Im done. Probably tomorrow. Later Folks.HH

 

[Floater]

OK Here we go folks. The conclusion as I know it and I apologize for the wait but Life happens. I tried to make it to the point and we will start the new thread tonight and I hope we continue on our journey in this great subject and the mystery's of finding out what our finds are and how to preserve them.

SHARKPIT COOKIE CONCLUSION​

Well I have thought about this whole experiment and the objects as they have emerged and the conditions in which they existed prior to our trying to identify and save them.

I have determined the 1st batch of cookies a success. The reason is simple we were able to identify two of the three coins and gained valuable knowledge of what appears to work in this condition and what doesn?t.

The fact that the coins eventually disintegrated was not a fault of the process, but because we tried several methods to bring out more detail in the coins to further the identification of them.

After the initial electrolysis we used some chemicals and some mechanical methods of trying to gain more detail.

The brief re-cap of these are as follows: 1st Electrolysis, second a variety of chemicals including Tarnex, Soda Ash, Oxalic acid, Hot Hydrogen Peroxide, Lemon Juice, Mineral Spirits, Ammonia and generic Surfactants.

The Mechanical efforts included these tools, A Dremel tool with various attachments, wood toothpicks,
Cotton swabs, Tooth brushes, Small hobby paint brushes, tweezers, digital camera with Macro and the last tool A Good Magnifying glass with a secondary magnifier.

Through the first Topic we saw these transformations and the Pictures helped describe the process. This brings up one of the most important tools. The Camera and the Catalog of pictures. The camera was invaluable not only in the documentation of the progress but to also help in the stages of the types of treatment and the conclusions to those treatments. My only regret is I lost a set of pictures on the Indian head which had more detail but I believe I erased them accidentally. The other issue is. I need to label the pictures better for my own filing and reference but this will be easier the second batch.

Conservation​

The deeper subject of conservation of these objects is also the ultimate goal but we need to define what conservation of a coin or any object is first and then develop a strategy to accomplish this.
If I had been more careful with the Barber towards the end I believe it would have been able to have been conserved. This is also true of the Indian Head Penny.
We had the coins whole or at least in an identifiable condition and in a coin like form even with their corroded edges and delaminating. Should I have stopped the process at that point? Yes.
Imagine if one of these coins was the last object of its kind. Where do you stop the cleaning and trying to unearth the last detail imaginable?
The answer is simple.
You stop when the object starts to deteriorate past its identifiable features that you have already uncovered.
I believe this to be the simple rule and I will follow it from here on out.
The final step at this point is to preserve what you have for ever. This is also a whole new point in conservation which is as unique as the process of restoration and completes the process of conservation.

A New Hobby​

Since I am not a professional conservator I have decided to call myself an Amateur Conservator.
I am in the process of buying either a Lamda rectifier or a Lamda precision voltage frequency modulated power supply. I have also been researching different techniques of restoration and conservation of objects. My library grows larger by the week.

In conclusion I want to thank everyone on the forum for the encouragement and support.
I would also like to thank Conservator for his role and support.
Last but not least my greatest and profound gratitude to Rtde3 for his having the faith and trust in me to help him with his Treasured finds.

The journey continues. Sharkpit 2 is coming to a thread near you.