sjvalleyhunter
Silver Member
- May 5, 2014
- 3,716
- 2,172
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab E-Trac and Whites MXT
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
*WARNING* For all of you coin purists who cringe at the mere thought of the words "cleaning" and "coin" in the same paragraph, then continue reading at your own risk. I will forewarn you now, I did clean this coin. In fact, I cleaned the heck out of it.
So a few weeks ago I was online and looking through some older, historic photos of a few of the surrounding towns. I ran across a picture of a two story hotel that stood at the turn of the century. It has long since burned down but the property it was once on now belongs to the county and is currently undeveloped. I decided to take a little drive out of town to see what I could find at this site.
Unfortunately, I quickly discovered this was one of the most iron infested sites that I have hunted in a long time. I had to use the TTF function on the E-trac and slow my swing speed to a snail's pace. On top of that, about half of the site had foot high weeds that made swinging that much more difficult.
I ended up getting a consistent 12-44 signal that showed to be at about three inches. I figured it was just a penny but I don't like to skip over good solid signals so I started to dig. The ground was so hard that it was darn near the density of cement. It took me literally three or four minutes to chip away at the dirt to the point where the rim of the coin was barely visible. It was dark in color which confirmed to me that it was indeed a penny. I continued to jab away at the dirt around the coin and was eventually able to pry it out. As I wiped the dirt off of it, I suddenly noticed a bright silver scratch in it. It was about this time that I realized that it was a bit smaller than a penny and had a reeded edge. When I rinsed it off I found that it was an 1896 Barber dime with a San Francisco mint Mark. This dime has the second lowest mintage of Barber dimes, only behind the 1895-O.
After I got home and looked at it for a bit I made the decision to clean it. Yes, I know that devalues it, but it already had a gash in it anyway. Furthermore, I have never sold any of my detecting finds. I didn't particularly care if I took some of the monetary value from it since I will never sell it. I enjoy my collection of finds and sharing it with others. This coin is a nice addition, but it was just plain ugly. It was so dark and crusted over that it was nearly unrecognizable as a Barber dime. In my opinion, I'd rather have a cleaned and devalued coin than a black disk with a gash in it.
I didn't take a picture of the coin before I started to clean it, but here it is after I got some of the crud off of it. The black around the edges is the stuff that had covered the entire coin.
Here it is after I got it all cleaned up.
At this point it was too clean, so I artificially toned it to bring it back to a bit more natural looking state. I'm now pleased with how it looks.
Oh, at that site I also ended up pulling out two wheats, a 1942 Mercury dime that had been through a fire, and a couple of other odds and ends.
So a few weeks ago I was online and looking through some older, historic photos of a few of the surrounding towns. I ran across a picture of a two story hotel that stood at the turn of the century. It has long since burned down but the property it was once on now belongs to the county and is currently undeveloped. I decided to take a little drive out of town to see what I could find at this site.
Unfortunately, I quickly discovered this was one of the most iron infested sites that I have hunted in a long time. I had to use the TTF function on the E-trac and slow my swing speed to a snail's pace. On top of that, about half of the site had foot high weeds that made swinging that much more difficult.
I ended up getting a consistent 12-44 signal that showed to be at about three inches. I figured it was just a penny but I don't like to skip over good solid signals so I started to dig. The ground was so hard that it was darn near the density of cement. It took me literally three or four minutes to chip away at the dirt to the point where the rim of the coin was barely visible. It was dark in color which confirmed to me that it was indeed a penny. I continued to jab away at the dirt around the coin and was eventually able to pry it out. As I wiped the dirt off of it, I suddenly noticed a bright silver scratch in it. It was about this time that I realized that it was a bit smaller than a penny and had a reeded edge. When I rinsed it off I found that it was an 1896 Barber dime with a San Francisco mint Mark. This dime has the second lowest mintage of Barber dimes, only behind the 1895-O.
After I got home and looked at it for a bit I made the decision to clean it. Yes, I know that devalues it, but it already had a gash in it anyway. Furthermore, I have never sold any of my detecting finds. I didn't particularly care if I took some of the monetary value from it since I will never sell it. I enjoy my collection of finds and sharing it with others. This coin is a nice addition, but it was just plain ugly. It was so dark and crusted over that it was nearly unrecognizable as a Barber dime. In my opinion, I'd rather have a cleaned and devalued coin than a black disk with a gash in it.
I didn't take a picture of the coin before I started to clean it, but here it is after I got some of the crud off of it. The black around the edges is the stuff that had covered the entire coin.
Here it is after I got it all cleaned up.
At this point it was too clean, so I artificially toned it to bring it back to a bit more natural looking state. I'm now pleased with how it looks.
Oh, at that site I also ended up pulling out two wheats, a 1942 Mercury dime that had been through a fire, and a couple of other odds and ends.
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