How To Protect And Preserve Relics?

[Dirtshark]

Recently I pulled a token out and it looked great coming out of the ground. 

By the time I got in parts of it were chipping off and discolored.

It set me thinking....

If I were to dig say a GW button, how could I ensure it wasn't going to degrade?

Should I be doing something right when I find it? Should I be treating it somehow?

I am purposely holding off on finding a GW button until I get some answers. 🙂

[Bob S.]

Unfortunately, there is very little we can do to preserve coins and relics from the ravages of oxidation and mineralized/acidic ground water. If you think you might have a find that is rare or valuable, just carefully wrap a facial tissue or soft cloth around it in the field and keep it separated from other finds. Those little fishing lure type boxes everyone uses lately might be good. Garrett sells a pretty good one here. Any perceived valuable coin or relic that might be very valuable you find, I would not recommend cleaning it.

Let's pretend you actually found a "GW",  you decided to clean it with a brush and ultrasound, then you decided to sell it to a collector for $everal big one$. Most serious collectors seeing a cleaned anything won't pay much for it. If it truly was an extra valuable find, let the buyer worry about cleaning it and pay the fee for a museum technician to restore it. On the other side of the fence, I have many "toasted" Large Cents that I know are not valuable, so I actually use some harsh cleaning techniques on them to at least see what I have and possibly read a date.... Simply, I just want to enjoy what I've found.

[Dirtshark]

3 hours ago, Bob S. said:

Unfortunately, there is very little we can do to preserve coins and relics from the ravages of oxidation and mineralized/acidic ground water. If you think you might have a find that is rare or valuable, just carefully wrap a facial tissue or soft cloth around it in the field and keep it separated from other finds. Those little fishing lure type boxes everyone uses lately might be good. Garrett sells a pretty good one here. Any perceived valuable coin or relic that might be very valuable you find, I would not recommend cleaning it.

Let's pretend you actually found a "GW",  you decided to clean it with a brush and ultrasound, then you decided to sell it to a collector for $everal big one$. Most serious collectors seeing a cleaned anything won't pay much for it. If it truly was an extra valuable find, let the buyer worry about cleaning it and pay the fee for a museum technician to restore it. On the other side of the fence, I have many "toasted" Large Cents that I know are not valuable, so I actually use some harsh cleaning techniques on them to at least see what I have and possibly read a date.... Simply, I just want to enjoy what I've found.

Sage advice Ben. Kinda what I thought. 

I guess that is why finding silver is so exciting. A quick wash and they look amazing. 

Thanks!

 

[Bob S.]

On 8/24/2024 at 11:39 AM, Bob S. said:

I have many "toasted" Large Cents that I know are not valuable, so I actually use some harsh cleaning techniques on them to at least see what I have and possibly read a date.... Simply, I just want to enjoy what I've found.

To illustrate a quote from my post above, below is the last batch of coins using my cleaning technique to at least know what I found. These coins were badly corroded and most not even recognizable. Some I've actually reclaimed a date. I use a handmade electrolysis bath first, followed with a "green scrubber" (dollar stores) to remove the black from the higher reliefs, and #0000 Steel Wool to polish. I call it "Harsh Treatment"! 🙂 The "Flying Eagle" was a nice surprise.

[schoolofhardNox]

Harsh, maybe - but it worked well. Some people want to remove all corrosion or dirt from their coppers. That leaves you with no contrast, so the detail get lost in the copper color. When we got our coppers to that state, we would use Vaseline infused with sulfur to tone it darker. If we went to far, a light scrubbing with the #0000 steel wool or a green pad would bring the details out again. Nice job on getting them to the best condition considering the circumstances. I often wonder if someone who was skilled at painting using an air brush, could adapt to using a micro sand blaster to smooth out some of the pits in the field of the coin. Or maybe a laser to level out some of the roughness that being in the ground for 200+ years does to our coppers.

[Bob S.]

Thanks "Nox". The electrolysis treatment using a stainless steel spoon as the Anode (+) works quite nice and leaves the coin black naturally. Someday someone will have to invent a "Coin Car Wash"... You dig it up, drop it in, and out comes a vintage classic! 🙂 I think the trick comes in finding less circulated coins. They never disappoint.

[schoolofhardNox]

7 minutes ago, Bob S. said:

Thanks "Nox". The electrolysis treatment using a stainless steel spoon as the Anode (+) works quite nice and leaves the coin black naturally. Someday someone will have to invent a "Coin Car Wash"... You dig it up, drop it in, and out comes a vintage classic! 🙂 I think the trick comes in finding less circulated coins. They never disappoint.

I'm all for the coin wash 😄 You should have some nice lime deposits in your neck of the woods. Nothing beats the condition of coins coming out of a lime area. Especially if they are on a slope. I remember a buddy of mine was hunting somewhere near the New York border, maybe near Kent CT, and he was finding Draped Bust that you would swear never hit the dirt. If I didn't know him so well, I would call him a liar 😅 Quite a bit different from the stuff I find in western MA (Springfield area).

[Bob S.]

Ha, unfortunately the pH of the lime water was no match for acid rain! 🙂 The coins with the best chance of retaining their original appearance, in my opinion and theory, are those that hit the ground not circulated very much. The die strike would harden the copper surface and allow resistance to oxidation. Those circulated coins like I show above have worn away the micro-thin hardening before being dropped and they were more vulnerable to acid erosion.

[kac]

I have found caustic solutions can make the pitting worse, steel wool, wire brushes also seem to take details away.

For kicks I snagged some jewelry tumbling soap since I had run out ages ago and got one that was specifically for coppers, silvers etc. I use a vibratory tumbler with carbon steel elliptical burnishing shot left over from my casting days.

I did 3 crusties from my collection and though you can't put detail back that isn't there I was surprised I was able to recover some profile on what I thought was a large cent and seems to be a Mass colonial as you can see the profile of the indian on it. Other I thought was a token of some sorts but turned out to be a 10 franc. Smaller one may be a half cent or 2 cent, leaning towards blown away 2 cent because of size and thickness.

Tumbling time around 7 hours.