Does anyone have a guess...

[Kentucky Kache]

Does anyone have a guess how long it would take for a fruit jar lid to rust away, to the point of being undetectable? I know it's a silly question, but I would really like to have an approximate time.

 

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[Kentucky Kache]

All the above.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

I'll play. I have detected fruit jars lids that have disintegrated ?into rusty dust as old as 80 years...but I am sure that the rust was sending a halo effect.
Since pottery was first used for canning..depends on how old your treasure is? In 1858 the first screw top rings were made,before that they were glass lids with metal clamps ?or tin plates that were sealed with wax.

I have seen bottle collectors unearth some old jars from the 1920's with the rusted ring intact...

I dug a crystal Arcade coffee grinder from a cellar hole ?that had been made in 1903. I couldn't find the bottom ?jar until a week later...which I detected ?and the lid was rusted ?,but still detected strong...This was in 2001 and the house had burned in 1918...if that helps

 

[Kentucky Kache]

I'm trying to determine how long paper money would last if buried in mason jars (all type lids).

 

[Kentucky Kache]

So, money buried in the 1920s would probably be safe.

Gypsyheart - when was the modern, two piece lid invented?

Thanks, all.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

1870 http://www.fohbc.com/images/FruitJar.pdf

 

[Kentucky Kache]

So, my 1920s money might not be safe. Thanks.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

I think the question should be..how long will money last if damp or exposed to the elements If the money was buried in a mason jar....it could very well be there and intact. Some one I know,found money rolled up in a jar. It had been there since the depression. Had been in the dirt floor of a hen house with the roof gone.This was in an area that gets lots of snow accumalation each year. The money was fine and spendable...

Your best bet is just dig it up and find out!!!LOL

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Hey ...wasnt that DBCoopers money found in a river bedIt was still good except for the burn marks? How long was that in flowing water

 

[gldhntr]

alot of the zinc lids had glass inserts that wouldn't rot away like rubber, and the zinc seems to last near forever...........gldhntr

 

[Darren in NC]

jbot, the US Treasury replaces old currency - even if it has rotted away or burned. I didn't look too hard, but here's a site...

http://googolplex.cuna.org/12433/ajsmall/story.html?doc_id=498

Lids deteriorate according to the acidity of the soil and exposure to air. A jar buried in compacted clay will pretty much be preserved for decades. In sandy soil, it would erode quicker. The rate of erosion has many factors involved. That's why a jar from the 1800s might be better preserved than a jar from the mid 1900s.

All the best,
Darren

 

[Kentucky Kache]

Thanks, Darren.
The only problem with government replacement is that, once they find out you dug it they would take it. I guess you could say you have collected it through the years.

 

[gldhntr]

or you found it in your grandpa's outbuilding while cleaning.............

 

[Darren in NC]

good one, gldhntr. I was told long ago that if I ever found a cache of gold coins and sell them, then go to a dealer and tell him/her it belonged to my great grandfather.