My oldest find... A very crusty V!

[tiftaaft]

I was lucky enough to get out and enjoy some rare sunshine yesterday with Flysar at a 1920's park in Portland, OR. We came to the conclusion that the park was cherry picked hard... we both found nickels and zincs, a few coppers but not much else. The highlight of my day was stumbling upon my first V nickel and my oldest coin since starting hunting. As it came out of the hole, I called Flysar over to take a look... it was only 3 or 4 inches down in a wooded part of the park, just off a walking path. I was using a modified coins pattern at the time, in Fe/Coin... and I had my combined bins set to give me the same high tone for nickels and copper/silver.

The first odd thing was... the tone was high, but the ID showed zinc penny (12-36)... and I dug the target thinking it was a zinc. After the V popped out, and Flysar had a look, we ran it across the coil again, and it was a solid nickel signal (12-11 / 12-12).

It was obviously pretty corroded, but we were both easily able to make out the "190" on the year, and the "V" on the back... Flysar even made a comment about being able to maybe see some detail on the coronet. I wiped the year a little to clear the dirt and I was able to make out the "7" making it a 1907. This is the second odd thing... I tucked the coin in my shirt pocket, away from any other coins, and went about my hunt. When we finished I pulled it out to take another look, and we both could see that a lot... and I mean a lot of the detail had gone away compared to what we saw out of the ground.

I got home and did a light wash with soap and water, and a bit of baking powder paste and it became harder and harder to make out any identifying marks... It was almost as if the detail was corrosion on the raised arease of the coin and as it dried and flaked away, so did the detail of the coin. You can see in the pics that some of the raised parts of the coin now appear to be concave rather than raised (the "190" and the lettering on the back)... and the "V" is non-existent.

So, a few questions for the forum...

Have you ever experienced this type of reaction on a coin after it is out of the ground? And should I try to clean it (any suggestions on methods) or just leave it as it is? It will be a coin in my collection, so I'm not worried about lowering value (and 1907 isn't a key date).

All that said... it was a great day in the park with a good friend and I'm thrilled to have found a bucket lister!

HH

 

[IDXMonster]

Those things will change right in front of your eyes Tim, it's crazy! Once they hit fresh air,some kind of reaction takes place, not sure the tech end of it....excellent find though! Those are NOT easy to come by in a lot of places, including every place I've been for sure! Better do some more checking out there!

 

[tiftaaft]

Thanks Kevin! I am very happy with that find. It is one of those coins I never expected to find. I was getting very few signals in the high disc/high trash mode, so I decided to dig a few zincs just in case there was some gold hiding in there and flipped over to a more open screen. But I think I would have hit this target in the high/high pattern too.

 

[mrwilburino]

I usually find them in the same condition, and yes those city parks do get cherry picked pretty hard don't they? All the detail is in the crud. If you try scraping or brushing too hard, you'll wear it off. I clean mine with soap and water then a few months soaking in olive oil. Once a coin is clean and dry, I will put a little bit of my wife's powdered makeup on the tip of my finger and just lightly touch it on the coin to make what's left of the detail stand out. Can't say why the coin read in the zinc range at that depth; maybe a nearby target upping the numbers?

 

[jas415]

Same way with a buff nickel, the detail disappears when cleaning it. Exact opposite on a war nickel - get the black crud off and the detail is great. As for numbers, where was the actual 'target' smear on the screen? I find the actual placement of the target on the screen is a far more reliable indicator of what the target actually is going to be. I have dug war nickels with two targets on the screen, one at about 12-12 and another around 12-31 with the high nickel tone in 4-tone, but most come in at 12 or 13. Maybe me running high manual sense, 26-27, creates the inaccurate numbers or non-existent number in most cases. .

 

[JodyReb]

The fact that you know it's not a key date, I recommend using ketchup to get the crud off and restore the nickel color. Afterwards, use Nick-A-lene to bring out the detail. Once I determine a coin is not a key date, this is how I clean all my V nickels. I have dug approximately 30 in the last year and this method restores them to close to what they used to look like in regard to color. Hope this helps.

 

[tiftaaft]

The fact that you know it's not a key date, I recommend using ketchup to get the crud off and restore the nickel color. Afterwards, use Nick-A-lene to bring out the detail. Once I determine a coin is not a key date, this is how I clean all my V nickels. I have dug approximately 30 in the last year and this method restores them to close to what they used to look like in regard to color. Hope this helps.

Would love to see the end result of some of your cleaned V's... wow.. 30? I am jealous of your ground (you must be much father east than I am). I have heard of using ketchup... what is your process?

Thanks!!

 

[tiftaaft]

Re: that target ID... I checked the hole and the surrounding ground after I found the V... there was nothing else around it. I thought the same thing, that I might have centered over another target and found the nickel first.. but that wasn't the case. I had other targets throughout the day that were toning in a different bin than the ID showed... I don't think it was this nickel specifically that was the cause.. maybe the ground conditions in that park..?? My hunting partner, Flysar, was swinging his Deus, and said the ground was 2 or 3 bars on his machine if I recall... so not extremely harsh. I am just used to the ctx being pretty spot on with target id's so this one surprised me.

Thanks to all for your comments. I know not to clean off old nickels now.

 

[JodyReb]

Shake up the ketchup before each use. Using a small container (like a condiment cup) place a layer inside the container. Place the coin on top of the ketchup, Place another layer of ketchup to cover the coin. Let sit for approx. 24 hours. Take out of ketchup, rinse and dry coin, change out old with new ketchup and repeat process daily until nickel color is obtained. Using Nic-a-leen, place one drop on coin surface. This should only be done short periods of time, 30 seconds to a minute, then rinse and dry. Repeat for both sides until desired depth is obtained. This is the process I've used for approximately 30 years. As far as the number of nickels I find, they were concentrated from areas that were once old recreational areas, parks, etc. Hope this process works well for you. Most of the nickels I find come out of the ground looking like a slick, copper colored slug about the size of a knock out from an electrical box. When I'm through they look lick an actual nickel. I'll try posting before and after pics when I can scale them down.

 

[tiftaaft]

Thanks JodyReb

 

[tcornel]

For the common ones I just use steel wool. It cleans them up pretty good. They did not have a numismatic value before or after so save an hour of time.

 

[tiftaaft]

For the common ones I just use steel wool. It cleans them up pretty good. They did not have a numismatic value before or after so save an hour of time.

I did the ketchup treatment for two 24 hour soaks, and also the steel wool... it is just so corroded that I think most of the distinguishing marks are gone... I will give the nic-a-leen a try when I get some as well. At least I can make out the year Thanks everyone for your comments.

Tim.

 

[mrwilburino]

The key to using ketchup and other corrosive solutions is to remove the coin from it every so often throughout the process and buff the heck out of it. That helps to grind off the crud as it slowly disintegrates. Buff it smooth, then put it back into the solution. Otherwise it wears down unevenly and gets all pock marked.