E-Trac visits the dentist

[AJupstateNY]

My wife is having some major (as in cost) dental work being done. She has gone twice to dentist
and on first visit I got permission to detect property. Office is in a home built around mid to late
1800s.

On second visited I detected front of home as my wife and dentist watch from his office
and her chair. That visit was just some clad dimes, nickels & cents found.

This visit I was out back on lot owned my doctor. First I found the three Wheaties,
1 Memorial cent, then the rabies tag and last was this 1891 Seated Dime! This is first silver with
E-Trac and my second seated dime.

My wife has 1 visited a week for next 4 weeks! I guess I will just have
to go detecting to keep busy, while she is in the dentist chair!

 

[JAB/Oregon]

n/t

 

[Beachcomber]

n/t

 

[jeff & Maria]

Don't rub or brush your coins. Any silver you find just drop in some lemon juice for a few hours. Use a q-tip with lemon juice to get into the detail if you want. Then wash it off with water NO RUBBING it with a towel either, just let it air dry. The rubbing you did on that seated reduced the value by half!
The biggest mistake we all tend to do in the excitement of a find is to rub the dirt off to see the date. The dirt acts like sandpaper and will scratch the coin.
Nice finds!

 

[EddieB]

Great finds AJ. I can't wait to find one of those seated lady myself. HH EddieB

 

[jbow]

How to clean up a penny? I have heard to use hydrogen peroxide for a few minutes but i'm not sure. I am guilty of rubbing on silver... i'll be more careful.

Thanks,

Julien

 

[upstatekenny]

 

[Jim upstate NY]

havent found a coin so valuable I worry about it yet.. dont plan on selling so like them better with the dirt gone .. although rubbing is a bad idea... most coins in the ground would be graded as damaged anyway

 

[vlad]

You make a good point on rubbing the dirt off-that is equal to using a 200 grit sandpaper.
But I would not use lemon juice as the acid can do a lot of damage and any coin dealer will
spot that it has been cleaned [they all use a jeweler's loup to examine a coin]. I dip silver in
"JEWEL LUSTER", and rinse it off with water after 5 to 10 seconds.
Then I pat it dry with a soft cloth as this involves no rubbing. Exposing it to air and or sunlight will make it look
as close to uncleaned as possible. Sunlight can give the wonderful "rainbow colors" effect, which
is highly desirable to many collectors/dealers.

 

[nge]

After cleaning a coin that way, put the coin in the pocket of a buckskin or suede style coat. the tannin in the leather will beautifully tone silver coins.......NGE

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Very nice finds - should be more there !

 

[moose]

Excellent finds AJ, Haven't found a seated yet.

Congrats HH

 

[iskirkra]

congratulations on the seated, I am still looking for my first. Hope you find more there. HH - Randy

 

[tippyhound]

haven't found a coin so valuable I worry about it yet.. don't plan on selling so like them better with the dirt gone .. although rubbing is a bad idea... most coins in the ground would be graded as damaged anyway

I'm as guilty as the next guy about wanting to see the date on those nice silver coins and I have messed up a few high grade coins doing it. Had a coin dealer really POD at me about messing up a 1921D Mercury Dime that would have graded "XF" had I been more care full. Turned a $280.00 coin into a $60.00 coin doing it.

I have seen a few coins on this forum that were so close to perfect after cleaning they obviously really had a lot of patience all the way from the recovery of the coins to the cleaning of the coins, as their pictures were really fantastic and it was obvious they really knew what they were doing in handling that coin. Made me proud just to see such good handling and cleaning.

Some years back "early 1980's" I was hunting our county court house lawn and I dug a 1927S Standing Liberty Quarter. I could read the date and the mint mark without rubbing it. Across the street on the town square was a coin shop I did business with. I got up and walked across the street to the coin shop and asked the dealer to clean the coin as I felt it was a key date coin and worth some real money. He cleaned the coin and told me it was in fact a key date coin and it graded at least "XF" and afford me $250.00 on the spot. I decided to hold on to the coin for a while " I still own the coin" as I wanted to take it to the next coin club meeting where I won find of the month with it.

Most coins are not valuable enough to pay some one to professionally clean them, but a little more patience out there when we recover a coin just might pay for your next detector someday.

Rick "IL"

 

[banditicey]

Great story and some great replay's
Ive only found one sitting Liberty dime year 1876 and am greatly looking forward to finding many more
The cleaning and rubbing stories are making me take notice and also making me nervous
Hopefully when Spring gets here Ill be prepared for the coins and do no damage
Have to ask, our family belongs to a bird club and we rescued an abused blue fronted amazon
and the question is what type of bird is in your picture ID ?
theres a small wager on your answer
Thanks

 

[LabradorBob]

Nice finds,I guess while she was seated,you were too Lol.

You should mention she go get her hair done too!

LabradorBob

 

[Jason in Enid]

While rubbing silver should be avoided, you did NOT reduce the value by half. This is a circulation coin. It was carried around with other silvers, coppers, hand grime, etc for several years before being lost.

We should try to avoid causing further damage to a coin that might be a key date, but not get carried away that we are holding key-date proofs and the slightest breath will destroy them forever.