Poor man's electolysis.....

[Digger]

A couple years ago, I found an old silver 3-cent piece that was nasty with corrosion. Not wanting to damage the first silver 3-cent piece I'd ever found, I did a little experimenting on a dirty seated dime. Now I'm not advocating that anyone clean any of their coins. To each their own. But on the more common date silver coins, I've found process this to work very well. Here is a pic of the dime before I started the process.

[attachment 168433 1877dimebefore.jpg]




And here is the process.......I took a clear glass coffee cup (clear so I could see the action) and filled it halfway with warm water. I poured in 2 tablespoons of salt and stirred it until it desolved. I layed the coin in the bottom of the cup and stood a D cell battery on top of the coin with the positive terminal pointing up. Then I filled the cup with just enough warm water to cover the positive terminal. For the next 2 or 3 minutes, I watched the crud fly from the negative charged dime toward the positive pole of the cell. I carefully removed the battery from the electrolite solution and checked the condition of the coin. It was still a bit dirty in around the letters. So I ran it for another couple minutes. I rinsed it, dried it off and rubbed it with a rubber gum eraser.


Here is how it turned out.....







[attachment 168434 1877dimeafter.jpg]

Word of warning...... on one occassion, the battery that I was using apparently leaked and got pretty hot to the touch. So be careful if you try this at home. And again, I am not encouraging anyone to clean any of their coins. Just telling how I remove the crud from some of my more common silver coins.

HH Randy

 

[NebTrac]

Thanks Randy. Looks like it did a superb job to me. Good information!

NebTrac

 

[Crispy Critter]

Pretty cool idea

I'd say the dime turned out really nice. Thanks for sharing the technique.
HH, Crispy

 

[CT Todd]

ok thats new and a neat idea thanks

 

[Cladiator (OR)]

That turned out very nice. Thanks for sharing the info.

 

[Goes4ever]

wow, thanks for sharing that is totally awesome! do you mind if I copy this post and share it with others? giving you credit of course!

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

That's a great tip Randy !

 

[Digger]

No problem G4E. I posted it on the X-TERRA forum a couple years ago, when I first figured it out. Funny thing about it is, I was going to use my "normal" electrolysis, but couldn't find a DC power converter. So I used a battery instead. The reason for the D cell is simply because it lasts longer (than a smaller cell) and doesn't fall over in the cup as easily. Feel free to share the info. I'm sure there's been a lot of folks join the ranks of detectorists since I first made the posts. Besides, I suppose not everyone has an X-TERRA! HH Randy

 

[Goes4ever]

thanks Randy! I posted it on buckeye treasure forum, majority of the guys there use etracs, I thought this was worth sharing! I gave you credit for the post and pics!