Finally! Some old silver and maybe a gold ring

[baylorhall]

Found my first Barber quarter today! It was "glued" to a buffalo. Can't read the dates yet but they are soaking in oil. Any other cleaning suggestions?

i also dug two rings today. One is kid's silver fish ring. The other got my heart pumping! It has two markings. One says GN20. I can't read the other. Any clue what that means? Just hoping it's actually gold!

HH,
baylor

 

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[Skelly607]

Sweet finds! 2 for the price of one dig.

 

[Erik in NJ]

If those two coins have been touching in the ground for many years the silver will take some work. There was a post recently about filling a jar (whose inside bottom was lined with aluminum foil) with a baking soda and water paste and setting it (the jar) in non-boiling water to simmer. The coin was placed just under the surface of the baking soda paste--I couldn't find the post, but it was posted in the last week or so. That technique may help in this case--I'm not sure. You can also post your question on the Cleaning Forum. You can put the nickel in ketchup for a few days, change the ketchup out when it turns brown.

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

The above is a mild form of Electrolysis... I would suggest using real electrolysis bath on the quarter that glue will melt right off and the black tarnish will buff off after the bath, the nickel maybe use the above method. Keep an eye on them both don't over cook them, more so the nickel. Silver is a good deal more resistant. Nice finds !!

Keep @ it and HH !!

 

[lab rat]

That post about the baking soda was mine. I don't recommend an electrolitic bath on any coin that might have value-- I destroyed a nice mercury dime that way once. Also, don't rub the coin-- silver is tough but softens up during extended burial and scratches easily. if you do a search of my recent posts you'll come up with the baking soda bath. It works well as long as you don't let it come to a boil. Let me know if you can't find it and I'll recap it for you.

 

[RelicPrime113]

Very nice finds, hope you find out what the other symbols are.

 

[pong12211]

Great finds.... Congrats on the Barber..

 

[lab rat]

Here's a copy of my previous post for cleaning w/ baking soda (and added pix of my results):

I wouldn't recommend vinegar-- to harsh unless a common coin. Baking soda won't hurt it, but rubbing it might. Here's my method: 1) Take a small glass jar and put a layer or two of aluminum foil on the bottom of it. 2) Pour baking soda in the jar to fill it halfway or more. 3) add water to just cover the baking soda. Stir it up a bit so all the baking soda is wet. 4) add more baking soda so you have a thick wet paste. 5) put the coin just into the surface of the baking soda so it is covered BUT NOT TOUCHING THE FOIL. Lay it flat so it doesn't sink down too fast. 6) take an old pan and fill it 1/3 full of water, and set the jar in the middle of the pan on the stove. Turn up the heat to bring the water in the pan CLOSE to boiling but NOT BOILING. If it starts to boil, take the pan off the stove right away. 7) let it simmer for about 30 minutes. 8) recover the coin and rinse it off in cold water. Handle it gently and DON'T RUB IT! If the crust doesn't fall off, you might try this a couple more times, but be patient with it or you could mess up the coin. (Worse case scenario, the crust will fall off and you'll find that the coin has been run over several times and is messed up anyway...)

This method has worked well for old silver quarters I've found on the beach with sand crust stuck to them. Silver oxides, halides, and sulfides are reduced back to pure silver and the coin comes out looking like it is fresh from circulation.

I do need to qualify this-- not sure if glue (or whatever) will fall off or not. If the coins stuck together because of corrosion your silver will clean up nicely. If it has epoxy (or some other goo) I can't say what will happen. For a coin with carbon-based muck I have been known to take a blow torch to it and roast the hydrocarbons off of it and clean it, but that is for something already compromised and not worth much!

 

[vpnavy]