Thursday, January 24, 2013

1/24/13 Report - On Cleaning Old Dug Silver Coins & More


I'm going to talk about that coin I dug Monday again.  I wasn't going to but when I cleaned it up I saw some neat things I wanted to show.
Same Spanish Silver Coin Dug Monday After Being Cleaned

I used Bill Popp's coin cleaning instructions as found in my treasure coins link list.  I diluted some acid and put the coin in the acid for a short while.  I then used baking soda.

If you haven't already, you should read Bills' coin cleaning instructions.  You'll see how nice this coin came out.  Really pretty, I think.

I really like the nice silver tone with some of the tarnish remaining.  I could get rid of some of the dark but don't want to.  I like it just like it is.

This coin surprised me in several way.

If you look at the date, there are stars on each side of the date.  The star on the left is imprinted with a "19" and the star on the right, imprinted with a "66" in it.

And if you look at the edge of the coin, the edge has writing on it.  I have a picture of that below.

Other Sid of the Same Coin
Warning:  Some coins should not be cleaned at all.  Cleaning can severely reduce the value of nice rare coins.  Don't clean a coin unless you know that it will not hurt the value of the coin.

Coins that are dug are most often not in great shape and can therefore often be cleaned without hurting
the value.

Sedwick Coins tells me that people often like salvaged cobs to be cleaned and toned to some extent, but don't clean coins unless you know what you are doing and know that you are not going to reduce the value of a valuable coin.

I always advise experimenting on junk coins first.


Edge of Same Coin.

Be safe when you are on the beach or in the water.  A man drowned in the Fort Pierce inlet this past weekend when his boat got swamped.


I thought this was interesting.  If you look at the picture below you'll see a faint eight pointed figure below the center of the picture.  It is a starfish that was in about a foot of water with a thin layer of sand over it.  I don't believe I've seen one just like that before.  It was about a foot across.

Starfish in Water.

Here is a little quiz.  Do you know when and where air conditioning was invented?   If you don't, you might be surprised to learn that it was invented in Florida in the 1850s.  John Gorrie was the inventor, and it happened in the bustling metropolis and research center of Apalachicola Florida.

The area around Apalachicola doesn't receive much attention, but it has a lot of interesting history and its fair share of shipwrecks and treasure.  You might want to look into it sometime.


The surf is supposed to be down around 1 - 2 feet today.  That could work out well.


Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net