Silver and the Tidal Zone

[ebeing]

What happens to silver when its be in a tidal zone for quite some time.
Does it turn black and get brittle?

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

in wet salt, it turns colors to somewheres between a metallic grey, to a full-on-black. Depending on combination of minerals with that wet salt. And then slowly eats away at the metal integrity of the silver, such that ... it's never redeemable numismatically. And to add misery to this, if the coin is in the "in-out" action of the sand (pulled out with each erosion cycles, and re-deposited back on the beach with the spring/summer fill-in), then it can also begin to get a "sand-blasted" effect. I've seen silver quarters and dimes ... so thin.... that you could bend them with your bare fingers. Doh!

An exception would be silver coins that came out from the higher dunes, which had not been eroded back into by any previous storm. Not sure about Florida, but here in CA, when there's the winter erosion cycles, not every spot on the beach is equally as eroded back into. Thus mother nature takes one spot on the beach, and that becomes her "burr in her bonnett". Like scallop points, etc.... Thus in subsequent years, when a new and different zone is getting eroded (a mere 1000 yards up or down from there), it can go into other dunes, which perhaps hadn't last been at this high water mark since 1900 or whatever. The silver coins get introduced to the wet, which , at first, can be every bit as shiny (nearly so anyhow) as something you'd expect to find on land.

 

[lost items recovery]

What happens to silver when its be in a tidal zone for quite some time. Does it turn black and get brittle?

This one was quite dark and down under a long time.

 

[ebeing]

thank you both for your replies.

 

[lost items recovery]

Some more silver I've found in south Florida.
Sometimes they appear a purplish color also.

 

[sponge]

Here is some. A wasted dime.

 

[Jackalope]

The black residue on the surface of silver is silver sulfate. A good place to find sulfates are in lawn fertilizers - so common for silver coins in lawns to come out dark grey-black. As the time exposed to the sulfate lengthens, the coating grows deeper, changing the silver surface color from white to yellow, gold, red, blue, green and finally black. You can use this as a guide to gauge when the ring was lost (perhaps - soil concentration of sulfates is unknown).

The green-blue on sterling silver rings can be because the silver is alloyed to copper, which oxidizes to a green-blue. Silver oxidized with chlorine forms silver chlorine which is purple/yellowish. A good source for chlorine is sea water.

 

[CASPER-2]

silver from "most" places up in the northeast comes out like this -(one on left for comparison-silver quarters)


silver colonial buckle


this handful of silver is from one trip to Fla. waters


we have more black sand and causes more caking
and then theres coins from this one beach I been hitting
they come out like this - no black sand

 

[Jackalope]

Perhaps some soap and water followed by soaking the silver in vinegar would remove the encrusted minerals. Then a bit of silver polish would get them shiny again.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Casper, great pix. Thanx !