PokerShark
Member
Howdy,
This was a little odd - I was detecting in an old park in the Los Angeles area near the ocean last Thursday after work. I have hunted this same park a couple times a week for months. It only gives up modern coinage and a few silver rings to date, with the oldest coins being 1960's pennies and nothing older. Well I was getting late in the day and the sun was setting fast. I got a very strong hit that was 22.5 all the way and the detector said it was a quarter. So I dug it and sure enough it was a chocolate brown quarter and due to the low light I could tell little else. As is my ritual, when I find a dime, nickel or quarter I say - "Hello, Mr. Quarter" and I put it away so I could quickly finish up with the patch I was hunting before it got to too dark to finish.
The next night I was looking over my finds for the week I noticed this quarter was different. It did not feel or sound like the other quarters when I dropped it on the table. Upon closer inspection I realized it was not a modern quarter and then I started to get excited! I could see no date an the more I cleaned the more I found I could see it was in fact a Standing Liberty!! Boy howdy!! Anyway, I got it clean enough to see a faint 2 and a solid 0 for a date with a D mint mark. So I guess it is a 1920-D most likely deposited here due to fill dirt because this is park built in the 60's into a steep hillside. Doubt there was much foot traffic prior to the park being built.
And here is my question
All of the coins I dig in the LA area are the color of chocolate or dark copper when I take them out of the ground - even silver. I have looked around and all of the cleaning advice I see deals with clad and or cleaning batches. I am more concerned with individual coins more so that cleaning a handful of coins at a time. So here is my question - how do I strip this for lack of a better name, chocolate film off of the nicer coins so they can be better identified? I was forced to use a dremel and soft wire brush in this case and that is not how I would like to do it going forward if possible. I am aware it is best not to clean coins at all - but if you cannot identify them you have to do something, and this coating is tough and thick at times. I suspect the cause is copper and other minerals, but it is tough to get off.
BTW - I put this question in this section of the forum because I trust you guys more than the strangers in the cleaning sections of this and other sites. Not a slam to them, just an issue of trust for me is all.
Thanks,
The Shark
This was a little odd - I was detecting in an old park in the Los Angeles area near the ocean last Thursday after work. I have hunted this same park a couple times a week for months. It only gives up modern coinage and a few silver rings to date, with the oldest coins being 1960's pennies and nothing older. Well I was getting late in the day and the sun was setting fast. I got a very strong hit that was 22.5 all the way and the detector said it was a quarter. So I dug it and sure enough it was a chocolate brown quarter and due to the low light I could tell little else. As is my ritual, when I find a dime, nickel or quarter I say - "Hello, Mr. Quarter" and I put it away so I could quickly finish up with the patch I was hunting before it got to too dark to finish.
The next night I was looking over my finds for the week I noticed this quarter was different. It did not feel or sound like the other quarters when I dropped it on the table. Upon closer inspection I realized it was not a modern quarter and then I started to get excited! I could see no date an the more I cleaned the more I found I could see it was in fact a Standing Liberty!! Boy howdy!! Anyway, I got it clean enough to see a faint 2 and a solid 0 for a date with a D mint mark. So I guess it is a 1920-D most likely deposited here due to fill dirt because this is park built in the 60's into a steep hillside. Doubt there was much foot traffic prior to the park being built.
And here is my question
All of the coins I dig in the LA area are the color of chocolate or dark copper when I take them out of the ground - even silver. I have looked around and all of the cleaning advice I see deals with clad and or cleaning batches. I am more concerned with individual coins more so that cleaning a handful of coins at a time. So here is my question - how do I strip this for lack of a better name, chocolate film off of the nicer coins so they can be better identified? I was forced to use a dremel and soft wire brush in this case and that is not how I would like to do it going forward if possible. I am aware it is best not to clean coins at all - but if you cannot identify them you have to do something, and this coating is tough and thick at times. I suspect the cause is copper and other minerals, but it is tough to get off.
BTW - I put this question in this section of the forum because I trust you guys more than the strangers in the cleaning sections of this and other sites. Not a slam to them, just an issue of trust for me is all.
Thanks,
The Shark
