Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
No. 1 (top left). No. 2 (top right).
The two shown above are completely black and heavily corroded. They look like they've been in salt water for some time. They look like heavily corroded silver and are about the size of a dime, however they show no details to indicate what type of coin that might be, if they are indeed coins. They could be U.S. dimes, but they could be foreign coins or something else.
Above is object no. 1 (top left in first photo) after 12 hours of soaking I could now see what looks like "TED" just to the left of the 12 o'clock position. That supports the idea that it might be a dime.
No. 2 (shown top right and below) doesn't show any identifiable detail, but when turning off the overhead lighting and lighting it from the side, it appears to have a faint straight object near the middle, however that is not clear enough for me to say for certain that it is anything, and it doesn't seem to be perfectly centered. It looks like there could also be a second smaller line just to the right of that. But that is all very fuzzy at this time.
All four of the objects were soaked in undiluted 5% acid white vinegar. The pictures at the top of the post show those two objects before cleaning.
After twelve hours of soaking neither of the first two most heavily corroded coins looks a lot better, but some details may be emerging.
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| Object No. 2 After About 12 Hours Soaking. |
You might be able to see what looks like two vertical lines near the middle of the coin.
Maybe you can see that or maybe not. It isn't terribly clear.
No. 1 and 2 will require additional cleaning. I'll try 12 more hours of soaking and see what that does.
Below are the other two objects (no. 3 and 4).
These two are not so heavily corroded and aren't blackened. No. 3 (left) seems to show Roosevelt fairly clearly despite the corrosion.
The last one (no. 4) has a green corrosion, which is commonly seen on copper or cuprous metals. It is also about the diameter of a dime, but much thinner and lighter thana a dime - possibly because of the amount of material removed by corrosion. This one could be a clad.
No. 3, shown after 12 hour of cleaning below, is the easiest case. You can now see that it is a 1964 dime.
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| Somewhat Cleaned 1946 Dime. |
Ok. That one is clear enough. Below is the back of that coin after cleaning.
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| Reverse of Same 1946 Dime. |
It isn't completely cleaned, but enough for ID.
After soaking in vinegar, I used a baking soda past on this one to neutralize the surface acid.
As you probably know, you should never clean coins with possible numismatic value beyond the melt value.
On to object 4, which could also be a dime, but does not show any trace of identifiable detail and is much lighter than a normal dime would be. Anothe difference with this one is the apparent copper content. You can see the green corrosion and some copper coloring on and near the edge of the object.
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| Object No. 4 Before Cleaning. |
I soaked this one for an additional eight hours before taking the last photos, but still no details were visible. It seems that any surface details were worn off.
Here it is after 12 hours of soaking.
You can sometimes see some detail by adjusting the lighting, sometimes turning off the overhead lighting and lighting from an angle. You can do with partially cleaned or uncleaned coins.
Considerable corrosion (possibly cuprous sulfate) is still on the coin. I can't see any identifiable detail on either the front or back yet. There seems to be something that looks like it could be letters at the very bottom in the above photo. I'm going to try more soaking on this one.
To sum it up, no. 3 has been identified satisfactorily for my purposes. There is some small detail appearing on no. 2 that also suggests it might be a silver dime.
No 1 could be also, but I can't yet see specific detail to support that.
No. 4 may be so corroded that no identifying detail remains. Still, I'm going to do more cleaning on 1, 2 and 4 hoping to be able to see more identifying information.
Concerning using vinegar for cleaning, it worked well on no. 3, a more lightly corroded coin. It removed corrosion on all coins, but 1 and 2 are more difficult cases. Much of the surface detail may no longer exist. That is certainly the case with no. 4. I'm not sure any amount of cleaning will bring out much detail, but I'll do more soaking to see how that works on these objects.
I'm satisfied with using vinegar as a method for cleaning coins, especially with the easier case. Of course, I wouldn't use it on coins that are in good condition or that might be valuable.
We'll see if any additional cleaning helps with identification of the other coins.
Progress was somewhat slower than expected. I planned to have this experiment completed, but it will continue at least another day to see if I can use this procedure to reveal the objects or if I have to employ another method.
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We are well into summer beach conditions and moving into hurricane season.
Expect nothing much bigger than a one-foot surf this week. Easy water hunting.
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| Aztec Calendar Beach Find. |
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net