Metal Detecting Online

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT encouraging anyone to clean their metal detecting finds. Whether you clean it or not is entirely up to you. Keep in mind, if it has a collector's value, you will likely diminish that value if you attempt to clean it.

With that said, I've spent the better part of this week contemplating how (or even IF) I should attempt to clean the crud from the 1852 Silver 3-cent piece I found over the weekend. I keep all my old coins. So diminishing the value on a coin I want to clean up isn't something that concerns me. I just don't want to make it worse than it was to begin with. And, if I do clean it, I don't want to use chemicals and I don't want to polish it. I remember dabbling with some various types of electolysis back in the 70's. But was never very impressed with the results. Most of the Shield and V Nickels turned pink when I used salt as the electrolitic solution, old copper coins ended up with crusty pits when I used lemon juice. And silver, well around these parts, I've never had to clean my silver. I take that back. I did find an old silver half in a lake bed one time that was black with oxidation. If I recall, I "erased" the gunk off with one of my kids rubber erasers. Like I said, I've been trying to come up with an inexpensive process that would remove the corrosion and not harm the 3-cent silver coin. It isn't just dirty or blackened. The crud on this thing looks more like corrosion than simply years of grime and crud. Looking at it through the magnifying glass, it looks like iron oxide. I know the area I found it in was littered with nails and iron implements. Maybe this thing layed beside one so long it developed a relationship!

Anyway, after carefully testing several "procedures" in my kitchen, I came up with one that surprised even me. Before I tried my "new process" on the 3-cent silver piece, I figured I'd better try it on a less valuable coin. Since beauty (and value) is in the eye's of the beholder, I chose an 1877 Seated Liberty dime that I found a couple weeks ago. Although it is not nearly as corroded as the 3-cent silver, it does have it's share of black crud. Here is what it looked like before I began "cleaning" it this afternoon.

And here is how it looked literally 10 minutes later.

After proving to myself that my cleaning process didn't harm the silver, I decided to try it on my 3-cent silver coin. When I dug it Sunday, all that was visible was part of the star on the face and part of the date. I didn't want to rub it while out in the field for fear of damaging the surface. When I got it home and rinsed it off, I found what I believe to be iron oxide "stuck" to both the face and reverse. And it was much more corroded than I first thought. Some of the corrosion was as thick as a paper match. For the past several days, I've been trying to decide whether or not I wanted to attempt to remove the corrosion. And if so, what to use? With that in mind, I decided to give it a shot, using some form of electrolysis. I figured if I went slow, I might not damage the coin as could happen if I used chemicals or abrasive pressure. To take it slow, I needed to use a minimal voltage supply. So I went to the workbench to find my old AC/DC converter, figuring I'd set it on 3 volts. As with most things I put away in a "safe place", I couldn't find it. So I decided to improvise and actually came up with a process that beats anything I've used before.

Here is the condition as it came from the field:

I took a glass coffee cup and filled it halfway with warm water. I poured in 2 tablespoons of salt and stirred it until it desolved. I layed the coin in the bottom of the cup and stood a D cell battery on top of the coin, with the positive terminal pointing up. Then I filled the cup with just enough warm water to cover the positive terminal. I waited about 3 minutes, removed the battery from the electrolite, and checked the condition of the coin. Just as with the Seated Dime I had "practiced on" earlier, the crud was starting to loosen up. I placed the battery back in the solution and waited another 3 mintues. By this time the solution was showing signs of discoloration. I removed the D cell and again checked the coin. More crud was loosening up and it was starting to look promising. I kept reminding myself it would be a slow process as this coin was far worse than the dime I had cleaned earlier. I changed the solution and repeated the process several times.

I continued (lather, rinse, repeat) for the next hour, changing water about every other time. I got a bit impatient and used a wooden toothpick to "get in between" some of the crevices. However, I did monitor my "picking" with a magnifying glass to make sure I wasn't doing any harm to the coin's detail.

There is still some discoloration on the spots where the corrosion was the worst. But I don't think it came out half bad! Especially considering the condition it was in to start with. And the fact that all I used was a common D cell battery, a glass coffee cup, warm water, salt and a couple toothpicks.

I do not recommend anyone clean their coins. Especially if they are extraordinarily valuable. However, if you are considering cleaning your silver coins, you might want to try this inexpensive process. I will warn you to take it slow, and exercise caution handling the battery in water. The first one I used had an apparent leak in the seam, causing the case to become real hot after about two baths. I replaced it to complete the process. I didn't try this on nickel or copper. So I won't comment on how it will perform. I would recommend that you do some investigation into what you might want to use as an electrolite before dunking something you are not willing to risk.

If you try it, let me know how it works for you. HH Randy