Question on coin conditions when found in salt water

[Ammoman]

Its been a very long time since i did any salt water hunting. Maybe 20 years or longer.

Can anyone remind me what typical coins look like when found in salt water? I am asking this because i just saw a video of some guy pulling a shinny V nickel out of the salt water and tossing it in his finds pouch as if it were just another find on the beach. I find it very unlikely that a v nickel would be a fresh drop.

I don't know...something seems fishy about the video.

Please correct me if i am not thinking right.

 

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[smokeythecat]

I would call that find "make believe". Zincolns in salt water evaporate within a year or two. They literally get eaten up. Copper cents corrode very badly, either going green or brown and get pitted quickly. Including very old coppers. Clad generally turns black or brown within a few weeks, maybe a little longer. Eventually it gets eaten around the sides and the coins become smaller in diameter. Silvers turn black quickly. Eventually (decades or more), silver will disappear. Normally takes a couple centuries for that. Nickels mainly turn brown quick and corrode. Gold is generally not bothered unless it was in contact with another metal. Iron rusts. Garbage happens.

One thing to consider. If some idiot had the V nickle with them at the beach and lost it very recently, a nice looking v nickle would be possible, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[Ammoman]

Thanks smokey, i'm not going crazy after all.

 

[lookingharder]

Ammonman, Your a Ammo troop. I know better, were all crazy as bedbugs.

 

[Ammoman]

LOL indeed we are all a bit touched!

 

[Terry Soloman]

Hmmm...

 

[smokeythecat]

Terry, your newly lost Zincolns have acne. There is no cure.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

nickels (V's, buffalo's, and Jeffersons) fare the best in salt water. Wet salt is bad for silver and copper, but nickel composition fares better. AS LONG AS the nickel is "still" (not moving in the moving inter-tidal sand). So if was stationary for some reason (stuck in bedrock, or @ an bay-like beach where the sand doesn't routinely wash in and out), then it is actually possible to find a shiny nickel. Granted, it won't be pretty under magnification, but .... could still be good looking in-so-far as color and quick look.

 

[Honest Samuel]

You have no problems if the coins were recently lost. Good hunting and good luck.

 

[CASPER-2]

all depends on soil or rocks or muck you find them in - in salt water
old coins here - indian heads come out shiney - they may have a powdery black residue on them but one wipe
with thumb and index finger and this is how the come out - nickles same thing - these coins are un cleaned
V nickel is not shiny but not brown they as well as most of my buffalos come out just a dull grey