The Dreaded Coin Cleaning(Pictures Included)

Rust? Were they found in an area known for a lot of iron ore? Rust is iron oxide and will not form on silver. I would suggest a good long soak in some olive oil. Say for at least several months.

Well these coins were actually a complete luck find. Some old guy had actually put them in the ring of a tractor tire. Not only did he do that. He also buried the tractor tire. NOT ONLY did he do that, but he planted a tree over it too. So once we removed the tree, we had to get rid of the stump. Well that tractor tire was in our way and we wondered what the heck it was doing buried anyways. So when we got it moved around a bit we found some glass shards. We looked inside and found a combination of about 400-500 peace and Morgan dollars. My parents took the spoils and the divorce separated the coins. So now each have an ice cream pail full and only my mother has allowed me to take a peek at hers. I helped her put a price on what she had and that's about the only reason she let me see them. I guess they just don't trust their own son enough with looking at them :P. BUT I was over at my fathers trying to convince him to let me get a peek at his. It's going to take some work to get him to take that stash out. He distracted me with silver coins and wheat pennies and I guess I'll just have to keep trying to get to that very expensive ice cream pail to even get the slightest idea of what that was worth altogether.

ALSO: Think it's a good idea to get a metal detector ;P? That guy did not die a poor man. He also had a very, very definite hate for banks. My mom would tell me stories of how she would find candy boxes filled with cash in his store and tell him that he needed a new hiding place for it since she found them. We've unearthed plenty of antique jars from the property, but ever since that tractor tire, none have contained anything but the glass themselves.

Well you can still see the silver peeking out from underneath. I think they are definitely savable. Just be very careful with how you restore them (notice I didn't say clean )

Shoot, I'll bring my metal detector and go to work!

Plenty. But we found this AFTER the property was bulldozed.So I'm guessing the majority of his collection is well burried. I'd like to get out there with a metal detector sometime but I can't seem to even get my hands on one.

Check to make sure there are no rare dates before you do anything....if there are, I'd send them for professional conservation instead.

That story is way cool. I would definately invest in a medal detector. You might have found $500 out of $100,000!! Keep looking and keep us informed of your findings.

Brian

Are there any more trees around there ? thanks for shareing