Found myself another Lady

[lenmac65]

Still upset from digging a colonial British copper on Friday and watching it disintegrate before my very eyes, I went back out to the farm field to give it another swing. While I was hoping for colonial silver, I was very happy to find my second Seated Liberty since starting detecting back in August. It was about 6-8 inches down near the edge of the field. The signal was at first very jumpy, but was definitely a coin tone. Once I dug my initial plug, it was giving me a steady dime signal on the AT Pro. The coin is actually in good shape, though it is tarnished. While I know cleaning coins is discouraged, I was thinking of trying the aluminum foil/baking soda electrolysis trick to reduce some of the tarnish. Has anyone had good luck with that trick? Any preferred formula? Happy hunting everyone!

 

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[washingtonian]

Beautiful coin! Still searching for my first seated. I never clean with more than soap, water and a toothpick so I won't be much help there but just wanted to encourage you and your great find!

 

[Digger RJ]

Very Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Johncoho]

I have used your method of cleaning with good success and no damage to the coin, but the choice is yours. 1875 is a pretty common year for seated dimes so it isn't a key coin. I have found 2 1875's. Good luck if you give it a shot.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Congrats on the Seated. I only water my coins off and rub with my fingers. I just prefer to leave them the way they came out of the ground. In my early years (30 years ago) of detecting, I did rub some Merc dimes with Baking Soda. It made them look like I just brought them home from the local coin shop. I just dont like that look, knowing that I dug them out of the dirt. Your coin has a nice gun metal grey look to it, and if it were mine it would go into my coin book looking just like that.

 

[xcopperstax]

The boiling water foil soda method would probably work pretty well on that coin. I could take several times through the process each time it will lighten it up a bit on one side. If the coin is pitted from interaction with the ground it may not look so nice if you clean it. I'd personally be tempted to clean that one. Great find though congrats!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congrats on the seated!

IMHO: I just use soap and water only on silver coins...just me.

 

[Inspector]

Nice seated save, congratulations. If the date is visible I put them in the display case as is.

 

[cudamark]

For common date silver that I want to make shiny and silver looking again, I put them in the bottom of an inverted aluminum can and soak them in white vinegar. After a couple of hours, I'll pull it out and rub over the coin with baking soda. If it now looks the way I want it, I'll then rinse it off in water and pat dry. If it needs more, it's back in the vinegar. Sometimes badly caked, crusted, tarnished silver needs to soak overnight, but too long and the silver will pit, so, I check the progress every so often if i'm concerned about it. After you done quite a few, you'll be able to tell what amount of time is about right for that particular item. I do it with jewelry too, unless it's just silver plated. It'll sometimes take the plating off.