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 Replies: 11 / Views: 4,210 |
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Valued Member
United States
61 Posts |
I've been helping to take care of my elderly mother after her knee replacement three weeks ago. I wasn't home for almost a week and when I did come home one Friday night I found the change pile which hub had collected during the week.
Overjoyed at the chance to go through some coins for the first time in over a week, I sat down at the table. There was one big pile and one separate small pile. I looked through the big pile first and there was a 1974-D Jeff Nickel - hole filler!
Most of the small pile of coins were black. I mean black so I couldn't see the dates. I could barely make out the backs of 5 wheaties. Had to make a decision at this point. To clean or not to clean?
I asked where the coins came from. They had come from a very old house which hub had torn down during the week. The old house had burned down recently and the fire truck had gone off the road and wrecked trying to get to the fire. Fortunately nobody was hurt in the accident or the fire.
I don't clean coins, ever. However, I made an exception in this case. I used acetone until I could make out the dates.
Here's what came up (all wheaties):
1937-D
1948-S
1950-S
1952-D
1954-S
They are still very ugly with a lot of black residue. I think I'm going to start a separate folder for these as I have a pile of rather unsightly odds/ends of old wheaties. I tend to find/receive a lot of coins in rather poor condition because a lot of old farms/houses in our area are dug up/torn down/excavated.
It was a nice ending to a rough week.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6370 Posts |
In my opinion, they are not worth conserving. Leave them as they are and use them as conversation pieces. They are far more interesting as being blackened from a fire that burned down an old house than bleached coins with no value.
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
You knew you were going to suck people in with that thread title, didn't you?  I very much agree with TypeCoin in principle but have to disagree in this application. We're unsure of what nastiness they were exposed to during the fire or what might be clinging to them in the aftermath. So, I worry that they might not survive into the future without outside assistance. They'll never be better than fire-damaged coins from here on in, but at least we can ensure they won't deteriorate in the future. So it might make a worthy side project to consider conserving them. Between following the polarity scale and a couple of other noninvasive tricks (  ), a degree of confidence might be assured. Let's await more opinion. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1388 Posts |
Perhaps some pics can be uploaded?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1839 Posts |
Sorry, had to do it.  |
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Valued Member
 United States
61 Posts |
Here's the first attempt to post an image. I followed the instructions so I hope it turns out well.  |
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Valued Member
United States
300 Posts |
I have a couple of Mercury dimes and Buffalo nickles that fell out of a chair my parents burned in the early 70's They really aren't worth anything but they're one of the reasons I got into collecting to begin with.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
 I too think you should not waste money or time attempting to fix those. Nice conversation items but not worth spending more money to fix. |
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Valued Member
United States
167 Posts |
Couldnt agree more with just carl. These coins are not worth the time, money or effort to fix em. Very common wheats.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19961 Posts |
If it's black residue from a fire, ironically, the best way to clean them is to heat them with a torch until all the carbon burns off.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4809 Posts |
Conserve if you are so inclined. If I couldn't make out a date I would try a test on one. If it worked out well enough, I might do the rest one-by-one.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5208 Posts |
@Tbone You beat me to it  Old school 16 bit  Edited by jack jeckel
02/04/2015 11:31 pm
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Replies: 11 / Views: 4,210 |
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Posted 02/03/2015 8:10 pm
