Found my oldest coin and it's a key date but

[iskirkra]

she is in pretty bad shape. I have been hunting an old stage coach stop and this was my forth trip. Until Sunday I had found lots of horse shoes and tack for harnesses. Found lots of old shell casings as well, but on Sunday I started to find lots of nails and other items where there must have been a building of some kind. I was hunting with my LTD in 2F, 80 sens, 6 disc in Bp mode when I got a good nickel signal which was unusual after ever thing I had dug so far. I dug down and the found a bent nail at 4 inches and re-checked the hole and was still getting a good nickel signal, dug down about 3 more inches and saw a brown round object the size of a coin and wondered what that could be. I didn't have my glasses on and really couldn't tell what is was so I walked back to my truck and put on my glasses and the first thing I saw was big V on the back of the coin, I couldn't really see the date except for the 6 on the end. I poured water over it and saw it was an 1886 V nickel. I hollered but was so far out in the country only the wild hogs heard me. In my area there were very few towns in existence in the 1880's so to find something that old is rare. She is in bad shape and all I have done is run water over it. Do you have any suggestions on cleaning it. I am not going to sell it. From the picture it is hard to read the date but if you pour water on it and pat it you can read it pretty clear. Is this a candidate for olive oil soaking? not sure how to clean it, but no matter for me this is a great find. Thanks for looking. Randy

 

[Roland58]

I feel certain that there will be a number of folks that will disagree with what I am about to recommend, but, it really worked for me. I had a large handfull of clad silver that was in desperate need of cleaning.......so, into the tumbler, some aquarium gravel and a little dish soap. I let them run about 8 hours and when they came out, they were all pennies!! As the gravel had been used before and simply washed, somehow I missed a zinc penny amongst the rocks. grrrrr. Then a good friend told me to run them again (without the penny, of course) and use about two squirts of Real Lemon Frozen Lemon juice and about four sprays of Clorox Green Works Cleaner (contains no bleach, only natural cleaners). Actually, the Green cleaner was the best thing I had on hand, I was out of the soap he recommended). I let them tumble about 5 or 6 hours and they all turned out looking like fresh from the mint coins!! I noticed no degredation in the crispness of the markings...........although, I thought there would be, at least, some..

 

[widebody]

[size=large]i tried pouring water on the pic. ended up just getting my computer wet. picture still didn't get any clearer.
congrats on the find. where there's one there's more.[/size]

 

[iskirkra]

Thanks guys, I did take it to the coin shop yesterday to confirm it was a key date and he said it was definitely an 1886, which if it had been in good shape, would be worth several hundred. I would not have sold it anyway. I would like to clean it up enough to be able to read the date clearly, if that is possible. Roland I will think about tumbling and thanks for the information. Randy

 

[osgood]

i wouldn't tumble it unless you can tell maybe that it is only dirt that is creating the distortions when you are looking at it. I have found i think its 7 v's now and they practically are all in quite rough shape- they just dont fair well in the soil. If the distortions are the face metal flaking off I suppose the gravel will remove all that, leaving you with the base, (sometimes course and rusty looking metal). I had a large cent I really wanted to clean up like that, and with oil and a high power magnifying glass, and wooden toothpick( which I was told wouldn't damage it much) proceeded to slowly work the date, face area, etc. It helped. At least you can back off if you hit a sensitive area, where I dont think the tumbling gravel would think of that. Just my opinion. Its cool finding a V nickel! Good hunting. CO

 

[bthom]

Snap.. I found my oldest coin during the weekend.. and was also an 1886 one..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB1RlJr1B04
if you want to check it out. Mine was worn , but to bad really I have seen others that have never been in the ground just as bad..

 

[Roland58]

It is hard for me to imagine soil that soft and easy to dig! And, it seems people in New Zealand must just throw coins away for the fun of it! I need to move. Congrats on a great find!!!

 

[bthom]

Oh its nice and soft at the moment, its been so damn wet... and yes there are plenty of coins around.. no body has bothered picking them up, until now

 

[go-rebels]

I'd try the electrolyis method rather than an mechanical tumbler. It's easy to setup a small outfit and run it off an old, discarded cell phone battery charger.

By the way, rough 1886 nickels are worth about $20. Still, a great find nonetheless!

 

[Crosby]

I soak nickels in white vinegar and salt for a few minutes and then rub them with baking soda under warm water. Repeat as needed.

 

[Byron (TX)]

Awesome find..... since this is a key date 1886 V nickel do not try anything abrasive for cleaning.

I recommend soaking it in Olive oil for about a week. The without rinsing use a gum pencil eraser rub off any crud, this should not scratch the coin.

Then rinse off and dry. If you want to see a little more detail rub it again with the gum pencil eraser. I've talked to a few coins dealers, it's one of the tricks they use on common date coins with minor problems. Even seen one at a coin show a few years ago eraser rubbing some tarnished foreign coins.

Don't do what I did.... I've dug several V nickels over the years, most are awful looking.

I got lucky about 5 years ago and dug 3 in one day and some buffalo nickels, lots of wheats, and a few silver coins at a very productive old school site that had the baseball fields scrapped and redone.

These were awful looking could not see the dates, tossed these in the tumbler for a couple of hours. Turns out one was a low grade 1886 ! But I had ruined it's value by tumbling it , the others were common dates and looked much better.

 

[Roland58]

<snip>
These were awful looking could not see the dates, tossed these in the tumbler for a couple of hours. Turns out one was a low grade 1886 ! But I had ruined it's value by tumbling it , the others were common dates and looked much better.

Thank you for the warning! I have to ask, however, how did the tumbling ruin the value? Is the "as it is found" patina that valuable or did you tumble off some detail? The coins that I have tumbled have not lost any noticeable detail, at least, not to the naked eye.