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Beach Hunt - That's All She Wrote


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Nice haul, the salt water is very harsh on the silver coins.  I found a mercury many years ago.  It looked similar to your but was caked with something black that would never come off.  Nice finds.

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11 hours ago, Mark Gillespie said:

Nice haul, the salt water is very harsh on the silver coins.  I found a mercury many years ago.  It looked similar to your but was caked with something black that would never come off.  Nice finds.

Silver coins take a beating from the salt water environment. Silver usually bonds with Chlorine or Sulfur. Hydrogen, Bromide and Oxygen also play their parts. I'm guessing the thick, black, granular stuff we call "Oreo cookies" may be horn silver (silver chloride). I think that is the simple version, but it usually is a combination of things. All I know is that the caked on black "cookies" are hard to break off. When you do get the coin out, it has lost a lot of its original thickness and converts a lot of silver to, I think the chloride state AgCl.  Someone who knows the chemistry may be able to confirm or correct this and explain it correctly. I often wanted to try bringing a vile of diluted ammonia to remove some of the corrosion or to at least stop the oxygen and sulfur in the air from continuing the corrosion process. I know when I dig beach silver that is a milky white/gray color, if it is exposed to the air it turns that black color which I'm thinking is silver sulfide mostly. 

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