18th Century Farmstead

[martinr78]

I found many (will post sometime) coins and buttons, etc on my 1781 farmstead. Any ideas on this one?

 

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[HuntinDog]

Besides over cleaned... I have not a clue, some here will know.

Very Cool coin though.

 

[martinr78]

Thanks for your comment. Found this item blackened underneath my walk-in fireplace when I excavated it. The magical formula to clean this item is a trade secret, I can't find it anywhere. Even the coins I find under window sills are still crusty, let alone the ones I found in the ground. I know all the coins I see online have been cleaned, but you guys always say its over-cleaned. Since none of them are worth much anyway (mine), I can either have a clump of coins unidentifiable, or what you see. I've found no gold, and only a couple half-dimes. I try to use the coin cleaners, but it's still not the magical stuff. All found on my farmstead, mostly under the 1781 crawlspace. Hundreds of buttons also. I'm working on a gallery.

 

[DCMatt]

Wow. Not much to go on...

Based solely on my experience on this forum, I'm guessing it's an Ottoman Empire coin. They are hard for the western eye to ID even when they're in good condition.

 

[A2coins]

I hear ya with the coins but there are many posts on ways to clean coins enough to ID them because you can really hurt the value if you clean too much. Though coins found in the ground are consideed enviornmentally damaged by coin graders. If you find a rare one and wish to sell it most buyers would rather you didnt clean just making a suggestion. Thats a really cool find.

 

[rick67]

Sell nothing. They're all history from his home.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

I hear ya with the coins but there are many posts on ways to clean coins enough to ID them because you can really hurt the value if you clean too much. Though coins found in the ground are consideed enviornmentally damaged by coin graders. If you find a rare one and wish to sell it most buyers would rather you didnt clean just making a suggestion. Thats a really cool find.

Sell nothing. They're all history from his home.

I completely agree with what Tommy & Rick say above.

"I hear ya with the coins but there are many posts on ways to clean coins enough to ID them because you can really hurt the value if you clean too much. Though coins found in the ground are consideed enviornmentally damaged by coin graders. If you find a rare one and wish to sell it most buyers would rather you didnt clean just making a suggestion. Thats a really cool find. - A2coins"

No offense intended Ron, but when you're gone these coins/relics from your homes history will still be around and you can never put verdigris back on a coin once it's been removed.

Having said this, I also prefer to 'restore/preserve' the coins that I find detecting, but I've developed a technique without using chemicals to do this.
May I respectfully suggest, that before you clean off any more the history off your coins, please get suggestions from some of the experts here on Tnet.

You may want to post your question regarding how to clean your coins properly in these Tnet forums... General Discussion or here... Cleaning & Preservation

Here are examples of some coins and other relics I found and 'restored' last year... let me know what you think.

Best of luck to you Ron,
Dave

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Here's a document that I've had for a number of years, it discusses different methods for cleaning your finds.

Sorry, I forgot how much information there was in it, I haven't looked at it for years.
Dave

Cleaning Your Finds​

Baking Soda Method

This is a very easy to do cleaning method. However, it doesn't work on everything, and it is mostly used to clean old silver coins that you find in the ground. Just wet the coin and dip it in some baking soda and clean it with an old toothbrush. This will take the tarnish off and make your coin shiny without scratching it.

Cleaning Copper Pennies

White vinegar makes an awesome penny cleaner. Put the pennies in a plastic drink container (a half gallon apple juice container works great) with a screw-on top and fill past the pennies with straight white vinegar. Screw the cap on and shake, shake, shake. Leave sit overnight. Rinse with clean water until the water doesn't come out murky. Please pass this suggestion along to fellow detectorists as it's about the best penny cleaner I've ever used!

Tumbling Method

Use a rock tumbler if you want to clean lots of old coins at once! All those clad coins you've been finding! It will cost you around $200.00 for a decent quality rock tumbler, or you might be able to find a cheaper one on Ebay (But try not to get the plastic ones, they make too much noise while tumbling.) I currently use two Lortone Tumblers

How to tumble old coins

Next time you go to the beach gather some small pebbles and some sand. Put your coins in the tumbler, add the pebbles, and about 2 tablespoons of the sand to make the tumbler about 3/4 full. Fill with water (to a little below the top of the pebbles) and add a touch of liquid detergent. Put the lid on and shake it to distribute the coins and pebbles evenly. Let it tumble for about an hour. Open it up and drain off the dirty water. Refill with clean water, add a touch of liquid detergent and tumble for another couple hours or overnight. Open it up and pour into a strainer or screen that has holes large enough to let your pebbles and sand fall through, but not your coins. Rinse the coins well and spread them out on newspaper or an old towel to dry. We tumble brass and copper things that have corrosion on them too, like buckles and buttons and keys, etc. Some people like to separate their copper coins from their silver coins when they tumble them. We have tried it both ways, and if you decide to tumble them together, don't let them tumble too long, or your silver (or clad) coins will turn a permanent copper color.

Electrolysis Method

Get a car battery charger or at least a better suited wall charger other than the cell phone ones I used for this project. Started off with a 9VDC 375mA cell phone charger, with an old 7 inch circular saw blade for the anode. It slowly took off a lot of the bigger stuff during the first 8 hours, but not really making a big dent. So, I found another charger I had from a humidifier. Put alligator clips on it, the charger was rated 13.5VDC and 1000mA. That setup was great for one hour the rust was coming off at a furious pace, probably 60% of all rust gone in that short time, but it also burned up that charger! So I guess either the voltage was too high, or the anode too close to the axe, I just don't know, so I went back to my original setup for another day or so.

The process was going very slow, so I added a second charger to the solution, so I had two going at one time, not sure if that is supposed to be done, but it worked. So I combined a 9VDC 375mA with a 6VDC 55mA charger and it started cooking again, did that for about another day. After wire brushing several times each day, changing the water every day, I finally said, enough is enough, washed off thoroughly, soaked in warm distilled water for a bit, washed again, and then soaked in room temperature distilled water for a day, changing the water several times. Dried in a toaster over at 250* for about half hour, then while warm, I applied thin coat of Crisco and put on a aluminum foil covered tray and bake at 450* for an hour. Let it cool down a bit, using welder gloves I then applied a 2nd coat of Crisco, repeated the 450* bake for about an hour, and cooled down enough to handle again with the gloves, applied a light 3rd coat of Crisco and baked again at 450* for about 2-3 hours and let cool down to touch. I read that Flaxseed Oil is a very good preservative, but had none, guess you have to buy it at a health food store, since our supermarket did not carry it, other than in vitamin pills. I would love to try Flaxseed Oil on my next iron relic preservation, also would like to use a more appropriate charger also.

Ammonia Method

Fill a small jar with ammonia, add your gold or silver items, put on the lid and let sit for awhile. Open it up later and polish each piece with a soft cloth. This works best for gold. We have tried old silver coins that we found in the saltwater, but afterwards you need to use the baking soda and a toothbrush also to get all the black off.

Jewelry Cleaners

There are plenty of cleaning methods and products out there for cleaning your silver and gold rings, some of them can cost you a pretty buck, and others are no more then a couple of dollars.
NEVR-DULL is a cotton wadding polish that cleans and polishes all metals including: silver, gold, brass, copper, pewter, glass, steel, aluminum and chromium. It removes rust and tar, leaves no deposits in the crevices of metal work.

Directions: Tear off a small portion of the wadding and rub the article to be cleaned until all dirt is removed. Then finish with a dry, soft cloth to obtain a brilliant, lasting luster Nontoxic.

BLITZ Jewelry Care Cloths

This polishing cloth is the best way to brighten your silver or gold rings and chains. They already have the polish in the cloth! It is two pieces of soft cloth sewn together in the middle. One cloth has the cleaning agent and the other cloth is for buffing. We were recently introduced to these fantastic little cloths at our club meeting. The best news is that they are so affordable; you can get them at Wal-Mart.

Blue Magic Metal Polish

This is a product we use all the time to clean our gold rings and other jewelry. Safe and nonabrasive, removes oxidation and tarnish. Works on gold, silver, chrome, aluminum, copper, brass, stainless steel. It kind of reminds me of toothpaste. Blue magic liquid metal polish works like magic on virtually every surface. Directions: Shake well. Apply small amount with soft cloth. Rub until a black film appears. Buff off with a clean soft cloth or buffer. Blue magic leaves a protective film.

Buffing Wheels

If the rings have a lot of scratches, you may want to invest in a buffing wheel to do a better job. There are many different wheels and polishing compounds to choose from. Medium soft wheels work well for me. I have a soft wheel as well but find it too flimsy and takes forever to get a nice luster.

 

[Noah_D]

Thanks for your comment. Found this item blackened underneath my walk-in fireplace when I excavated it. The magical formula to clean this item is a trade secret, I can't find it anywhere. Even the coins I find under window sills are still crusty, let alone the ones I found in the ground. I know all the coins I see online have been cleaned, but you guys always say its over-cleaned. Since none of them are worth much anyway (mine), I can either have a clump of coins unidentifiable, or what you see. I've found no gold, and only a couple half-dimes. I try to use the coin cleaners, but it's still not the magical stuff. All found on my farmstead, mostly under the 1781 crawlspace. Hundreds of buttons also. I'm working on a gallery.View attachment 1798900

Don't be disappointed to not find gold! Even what you already have with the beautiful capped half dime and all those nice largies is a dream come true for most detectorists! I haven't found any silver older than the 40s yet!

 

[invent4hir]

Thanks for your comment. Found this item blackened underneath my walk-in fireplace when I excavated it. The magical formula to clean this item is a trade secret, I can't find it anywhere. Even the coins I find under window sills are still crusty, let alone the ones I found in the ground. I know all the coins I see online have been cleaned, but you guys always say its over-cleaned. Since none of them are worth much anyway (mine), I can either have a clump of coins unidentifiable, or what you see. I've found no gold, and only a couple half-dimes. I try to use the coin cleaners, but it's still not the magical stuff. All found on my farmstead, mostly under the 1781 crawlspace. Hundreds of buttons also. I'm working on a gallery.View attachment 1798900

martinr78, glad to hear you're working on a gallery! I agree, what you're finding is a window into the home's past - and also the community. Consider researching previous owners of the home and write up the history using some of the buttons and coins as tangible examples of the period. I do this sometimes and have even been asked to give presentations. Never fails that someone will approach me afterwards and offer the chance to detect their historic property.