South Bend

[BobbyH]

Any metal detecting clubs in South Bend? I am new to the hobby.

[tmanfromtexas]

Welcome to the hobby. I am over in Gary but have hunted with some of those pirates over there. Vibes, Digging Jimmy Hoffa, etal are all great folks to go dirt fishing with. TMAN...

[vibes]

Bobby,

All the parks , school yards, tot lots, abandoned houses, old farm houses/fields are mine

All kidding aside...we have some group hunts and are a fun-ny bunch

welcome to the hobby and HH

[rc2125]

Bobby,

All the parks , school yards, tot lots, abandoned houses, old farm houses/fields are mine

All kidding aside...we have some group hunts and are a fun-ny bunch

welcome to the hobby and HH

You forgot the beaches too

[vibes]

Bobby,

All the parks , school yards, tot lots, abandoned houses, old farm houses/fields are mine

All kidding aside...we have some group hunts and are a fun-ny bunch

welcome to the hobby and HH

You forgot the beaches too

rc2125...damn, I KNEW I forgot something.

Ok, Bobby, beaches are mine too. Ask rc, he knows

AND rc....how ARE you? We haven't run into each lately!

[rc2125]

With no big wave action in the big lake lately, didn't bother going out in the water, kinda switched gears to do some dog training this past weekend instead.

[BobbyH]

thanks for the warm welcome. I have a quick question for you Pros. I found some coins today that I am not sure of the date or the coin. I tried washing them off with water but still can not dates or pictures. how would you suggest cleaning them? Thanks again

[diggin jimmy hoffa]

thanks for the warm welcome. I have a quick question for you Pros. I found some coins today that I am not sure of the date or the coin. I tried washing them off with water but still can not dates or pictures. how would you suggest cleaning them? Thanks again

Welcome to the Indiana Forum
If you are trying to clean some pennies to get a date off of them, you can take a potato (no kidding) and cut a small slit in it and slide the penny in. Leave it in there for a few hours or longer. For some reason, it works. My theory is that the Spud contains the moisture and is very dense and pushes the moisture into the dirt that is cake on. Another way is to take over the counter Peroxide and put some in a bowl and zap it in the microwave. Keep an eye on it while nuking it. Whenyou see it start spewing, take it out. Be careful though, as it will scalled you. Put the penny in and let it fizz. When the fizzing is done, you can take it out and should be able to get a date. If not, repeat the nuking process again.

This process works great and my Indian head look awesome with this procedure and it works on wheats too.

Make sure that you do not nuke the solution while you have the coin in it, as it will be a sparkler fest.

HH
DJH

[BobbyH]

It worked like a charm on the wheat pennies I found. Can this process be used on dimes and nickels?

thanks BH

[diggin jimmy hoffa]

It worked like a charm on the wheat pennies I found. Can this process be used on dimes and nickels?

thanks BH

Which method did you use?

Nickels are hard to get clean if they are old, as they get a red tint to them. I've seen this in the Buffalo's and the V nickels. I have heard that regluar old Catsup will clean the nickels. Put some ketsup in a small bowl and let the nickel soak in it. I've tried it and the nickel came out a lighter shade of red and I think I should leave it in longer.

Dimes and Quarters, if silver should be easily readible, as silver looks nice and shiny out of the ground for the most part. Sometimes a silver coin will be dark, but I haven't experienced any silver that was so cruddy that I couldn't tell it was not silver.

If the coins you are finding are just modern clad coins, you can run them through a rock tumbler with white aquarium gravel and a bit of liquid dish soap. Do not run you copper pennies in with the silver colored coins, as the pennies will turn them a copper color.

If you dig a silver coin, the best way to clean it IMO, is to run it under the faucet and lightly brush it with a tooth brush.

Hopes this helps answer your questions and good luck poundin' the dirt.

DJH