I "Found" My V Nickel Under the Rust.....

[Garrett424]

I found my first 1899 "V Nick" a week ago and finally got around to cleaning it this morning.
It was in awful shape and VERY rusted from the location.

Before:



After:



I actually used an SOS pad on it for about 10 minutes per side. It's still badly pitted as I expected it would be but I'm not worried. It's not a key date and was already toasted.
I just wanted to actually see it since it's my first as well as experiment a bit. I don't think the SOS did nearly as much damage as I expected it might which kinda' surprised me a bit. I'm totally cool with the outcome.

I also have some pretty nice ones in my collection already and I was fully prepared to ruin it worse than it was before I started.
I'm also not recommending this method to anyone and I can't say if I'll do it again.
If you try it you do so at your own risk. If you ruin a coin don't blame me. You have been warned.

But, this was actually my first "find" of the day before I went out hunting.

Thanks for looking and HH.

 

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[bootybandit]

It's definitely seen better days. At least you were able to get a date off it. That's good ,it wasn't a key date. Cool find anyway! Congrats on your 1st!

 

[Carolina Tom]

Congrats on the nickel! I don't have a buff or a V nickel. Good show!

 

[Garrett424]

Congrats on the nickel! I don't have a buff or a V nickel. Good show!

No buffs for me yet either but I'm still lookin'.

A friend who works in a convenience store found one Saturday; a 1935 in amazing condition. I explained to him how so many of them no longer even have a readable date.
He's been collecting wheaties for years and I happened to ask him why only wheat pennies and why not other old coins??

He had no answer and I suggested he keep his eyes open in the cash drawer. It paid off quickly. The girl who used to work there saved every silver for me and gave them to me at face value.

I also made friends with another young lady cashier whose now scouting the Coin Star machine for me daily. So far, nothing special has showed up but it will.
It always does.

 

[CladGrabber]

Nickle is a very hard metal it's ok to use an sos pad on a non-keydate.
Another method I have seen a fellow Tnetter have luck with is: 80% apple cider vinegar and 20% peroxide let soak for 24hrs.

 

[jwarner51]

Man, I have found some very good coins but I have never even found a V nickel or a nickel at all for that matter. Great find!

 

[GatorBoy]

This should make you feel better about yours check this one out I found in the water this is the way I pulled it out.
Yours is in great shape :-)

 

[Garrett424]

This should make you feel better about yours check this one out I found in the water this is the way I pulled it out.
Yours is in great shape :-)

Wow.
It's amazing how thin they made those things but yours looks even thinner. It actually looks kinda' cool, sorta' "textured".
So, it's still a cool find. Anything from the 19th century and back is a great find in my book.

 

[Garrett424]

Man, I have found some very good coins but I have never even found a V nickel or a nickel at all for that matter. Great find!

I actually found it inside an old cave where an Indian woman lived and DIED!!
Pretty neat place. I've found all kinds of random things there including a 1944 War Nickel. Even though it's 35% silver it too is covered in cave muck. I'm thinkin' I'll give that one the SOS treatment as well. it should shine up real nice after 20 minutes of elbow grease.

It's the one on the far left:



The dirt there is SO nasty. It's black as coal, very damp and apparently, highly corrosive. You can see from the nickel on the right what that dirt does to coins. That one's a 1940.

Dirty or not, I Like 'em.

 

[GatorBoy]

Hot peroxide works great for getting environmental stain off of things like that black dirt you're referring to.
Considering its in a cave and it's highly corrosive and black as coal I wouldn't doubt that most of it is bat droppings

 

[Garrett424]

Hot peroxide works great for getting environmental stain off of things like that black dirt you're referring to.
Considering its in a cave and it's highly corrosive and black as coal I wouldn't doubt that most of it is bat droppings

I soaked that thing in boiling peroxide many times, as well as vinegar, ketchup and lemon juice. I even left it in the peroxide for a few days. None of those methods touches that stuff. It's actually oxidized; in other words RUST.
That's why I resorted to the SOS treatment as a last resort.

Whether or not it's bat guano I do not know but I do know that whatever it is, it's really nasty and extremely tough to clean.
Every time I leave that cave after a long hunt I'm filthy. My knees were jet black the last time.

 

[Garrett424]

Man, I have found some very good coins but I have never even found a V nickel or a nickel at all for that matter. Great find!

You have to dig those "pull tab" and "trash" signals if you want nickels or gold.
There's just no way around it. If you disc out pull tabs you're highly likely to pass right over nickels and gold items. Once you accept that fact your nickel and gold count will rise immediately.

Just remember, if you're diggin' pull tabs, juice bottle tops & nickels you'll find the gold as well IF it's there to be found and you do a thorough job of scanning every square inch. I've never used a really nice, high end detector but as I understand it, that's pretty much a universal rule.

You also never know what's hiding below the trash level.
I found an 1881 Indian Head cent in fairly good shape after removing about a half dozen pull tabs that were masking it out. I was getting nothing but low "trash" tones. Once I got rid of the junk that IH rand out nice and high, loud and clear.

Had I not removed the pull tabs I never would have found it.
Every time I dig one I just tell myself I'm one step closer to my next gold score.

 

[GatorBoy]

I couldn't agree more

 

[jwarner51]

I actually found it inside an old cave where an Indian woman lived and DIED!!
Pretty neat place. I've found all kinds of random things there including a 1944 War Nickel. Even though it's 35% silver it too is covered in cave muck. I'm thinkin' I'll give that one the SOS treatment as well. it should shine up real nice after 20 minutes of elbow grease.

It's the one on the far left:

<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1056968"/>

The dirt there is SO nasty. It's black as coal, very damp and apparently, highly corrosive. You can see from the nickel on the right what that dirt does to coins. That one's a 1946.

Dirty or not, I Like 'em.

Wow what a neat place!

 

[Garrett424]

Wow what a neat place!

It's definitely a cool place. Unfortunately, it's gotten pretty well known but I've never heard of anyone detecting there before. I've been cleaning out the trash in the hopes of more goodies below.

I found many old bottles there years ago as well.
The Indian woman lived there from 1959 to 1962 when she died.

 

[jwarner51]

It's definitely a cool place. Unfortunately, it's gotten pretty well known but I've never heard of anyone detecting there before. I've been cleaning out the trash in the hopes of more goodies below.

I found many old bottles there years ago as well.
The Indian woman lived there from 1959 to 1962 when she died.

And its just a cave?

 

[GatorBoy]

Depending on how deep you did you might come up with some really old stuff like stone tools and pottery

 

[Garrett424]

And its just a cave?

Yup.
It's a natural cave too. I live in a town that was heavily quarried back in the day, hence the name "Granite", MD. I always assumed it may have been man made but I've since learned it's natural.

It also used to have 3 rooms but now it's down to 1 due to a cave in at some point.
It's on an extremely steep hillside in a natural outcropping of rock with a sheer cliff on the front. You can easily die in a place like this at worst if you're not very aware of you footing at all times. You can also easily lose your equipment.

But, it's a beautiful place. The cave itself is about 30 feet across,maybe 8 feet high to the ceiling and maybe 15-20 feet back into the hill.

 

[jwarner51]

Yup.
It's a natural cave too. I live in a town that was heavily quarried back in the day, hence the name "Granite", MD. I always assumed it may have been man made but I've since learned it's natural.

It also used to have 3 rooms but now it's down to 1 due to a cave in at some point.
It's on an extremely steep hillside in a natural outcropping of rock with a sheer cliff on the front. You can easily die in a place like this at worst if you're not very aware of you footing at all times. You can also easily lose your equipment.

But, it's a beautiful place. The cave itself is about 30 feet across,maybe 8 feet high to the ceiling and maybe 15-20 feet back into the hill.

Wow almost makes me want to make a trip up there. What an amazing place. Too bad you can't get into those other rooms

 

[Garrett424]

Depending on how deep you did you might come up with some really old stuff like stone tools and pottery

I agree. That's the long term plan.

There's another cave a guy did a dig in back in 1960. It was used by migratory Indians for centuries as a hunting camp.
He dug up numerous projectile points and some pottery and fragments of pottery.

he claimed he knew of 6 more sites but took the locations to his grave. I have searched high and low for years and haven't found any, although I have a very strong hunch I may know where at least one is. I want to hunt that spot as well but it's a very long walk .

I just haven't made it there yet this year.

Last summer all I did was relic hunt with no detector. I was just walking streams and picking up thousands of rocks. I found one relic, one fossil and a few "maybes". Metal detecting gives you far more instant gratification.

Native relics are extremely rare around here because this was unclaimed territory used by several different tribes for hunting, fishing, etc. There were very few permanent settlements on this side of the Bay in central MD. Most were north, south and east of where I am.

The Indians were run out of the state early on during the Colonial era because MD was one of the first places taken over. Europeans have been here since the 1600's. Most of the Indians just moved West to get away from the white people. Who could blame them?? They considered the Europeans to be not only a serious threat, but extremely FILTHY people because they never bathed.

The Susquehannocks were eventually wiped out entirely and they had a huge territory at one time stretching from VA to upstate NY.

I would LOVE to have seen what it was like in those days when everything was wild an untouched. Here in MD there were elk, Buffalo, Bob Cat, Wolves, Coyotes, far more bears and many species of migratory fish that are long gone due to damming the rivers. The settlers really did a number on both the native people and nature here.