Unusual coin: Dutch World War 2 zinc 5-cent coin

[brianc053]

Hi everyone! We found an unusual coin yesterday hunting a neighbor's property. It was found in an older garden near a brick wall.

A little research told me that this zinc 5-cent coin was minted in the Netherlands between 1941 and 1943 during World War II.

I believe this one is a 1943, but the "43" is under a lot of rusty corrosion.

The coin is made of 100% zinc (a terrible metal for coins), and it quickly corroded when we got it out of the ground. I didn't help when I used water to wash it off; apparently the moisture causes the corrosion. I now have it in a ziplock with a desiccant.

Anyone have suggestions on how to clean a 100% zinc coin? (I bet that doesn't come up too often)

The first two pictures are from when it came out of the hole; the 3rd picture is what it looked like just before I dried it and put it in with the desiccant.
Thanks for looking!

 

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[Mackaydon]

https://coinquest.com/cgi-bin/cq/coins.pl?coin=16193
Interesting find !
Don.....

 

[Mackaydon]

https://www.metaldetectingworld.com/cleaning_coin_p19_zinc_tin.shtml
Don....

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!!! Congrats!!!!

 

[CRUSADER]

Had a sneak preview thanks.

 

[brianc053]

https://www.metaldetectingworld.com/cleaning_coin_p19_zinc_tin.shtml
Don....

Thank you for the links Don. I did not realize that this coin was minted by the Germans; that realization gave me a bit of a chill.
I’m sad to say that I tried some mechanical cleansing near where the “41/2/3” year digits would have been and the zinc is so soft that it rubbed away. I’m going to stop all attempts to cleans this coin further; I think I will just cover it with lacquer as-is.

Thanks again for the interest!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Nice find, congrats!