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 Replies: 16 / Views: 2,787 |
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New Member
Canada
5 Posts |
Hi -
I'm not a coin collector, and this is my first visit to a collector's forum.
I live in western New Brunswick, on the outskirts of a small town. On the way back from the coffee shop today, I decided to take a short-cut along the old railway bed. The tracks were torn up decades ago, and the line had seen little use for several decades before that.
By chance and a favorable angle of sunlight, I spotted a circular outline on the ground... there was absolutely no difference in color, just a hint of a circle... and it turned out to be a coin.
It's in very bad shape, corroded and stained with verdigris, and with enough dirt and oxidized scale adhering to it that I see only a few individual letters and bits of image. It's exactly the size of a Canadian penny.
I have better sense than to try and clean it myself... I've heard all the usual horror stories... so aside from holding it under the kitchen tap and then blotting it dry, I've made no attempts to clean it. To be more specific, I haven't scratched, scraped or rubbed at the oxidized layer, nor have I used anything stronger than tap-water on it.
Which brings me to my question: how should I clean it up enough that it can be identified?
Ultrasound in a water bath? I can probably arrange almost any reasonable cleaning treatment, since I work on a military base.
The old railway line last saw regular use around the time of the first world war... about a century ago.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1118 Posts |
I live in Woodstock, NB and walk the tracks all the time, maybe I'll luck out and find a coin.
Submerge it in acetone, pure acetone not nail polish remover. That should take a good bit of it off.
If it is copper I know ancient guys use olive oil but it is quite acidic, try to avoid that for now.
Any chance we can get some pics, and Welcome to our forum.
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Rest in Peace
United States
7075 Posts |
 You want to get pure acetone (not nail polish remover) from the hardware store. There is very little chance that you've found a real treasure .... but you never know. So it's best to be careful and stick with the pure acetone. You pour some acetone into a little glass container and let it soak for 20 minutes or so then remove it and repeat as often as necessary. We will, of course, want pics of whatever it is that you found.  Good luck. I hope it's something really cool! |
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Valued Member
United States
194 Posts |
Others here will probably have much better answers but personally when I find really toasted coins while metal detecting I soak them in hydrogen peroxide for a while and they usually clean right up. Not sure if it is more harsh than acetone but I've had much much better luck getting gunk off with peroxide than acetone.
Edited by tbolts10
05/15/2015 8:22 pm
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New Member
 Canada
5 Posts |
Thanks for the help. I'm actually posting from Woodstock... small world, isn't it?... but I'm only in town a couple of times a month.
Did you want mobile-phone pics of it's current state?
My plan is to follow your advice about soaking it in acetone, then take it to the Imaging department here on base and have them shoot it under low-angle point-source illumination in a darkened room in order to accent the surface relief. If they shoot it four times (moving the light source 90 degrees around between shots) and photo-shop the four images together into one, it should give us as much info as we're ever going to get.
I don't expect that I'll find anythng valuable, but a hundred-year-old penny would be a pretty neat find.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5828 Posts |
Quote:
I soak them in hydrogen peroxide for a while and they usually clean right up I wouldn't do that IMHO. Just look at what it + viniger does to datless buffs. Yikes. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1118 Posts |
That sounds neat, maybe it would spark an interest in numismatics (that means a money studier).
You can do that fancy stuff when you get back to Oromocto but cell phone pics would do wonders as far as for us to give you advice.
If it does spark an interest I could probably find you an old large cent you could take off my hands for me.
Oh, no tap water. Distilled. The stuff in the water could hurt the coin.
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New Member
Canada
5 Posts |
Sorry that took so long. I was struggling with unfamiliar technology. Here a couple of shots... sorry about the poor definition.   We'll have to wait until I'm back in Oromocto for a better shot than that. Edited by blue emu
05/15/2015 9:49 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1118 Posts |
It is either a Canadian small cent struck between '20 to 36 or a Newfoundland small cent. I can make out the bust of King George V with a crown on the obverse but the obverse is to toasty.
It is worth a cent regardless, can't be upset about finding a coin, beats a kick in the butt.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
618 Posts |
Poss.junk penny ---- throw it out because it will corrode your mind. LOL. In life it is better to go forward than dwell on what could have been.
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New Member
Canada
5 Posts |
I'll be happy to have found a '20 - '36 penny, if that's what it is. Oddly enough, I had just now come to that same conclusion, after Googling "Canadian penny history" and looking at a few images.
Thanks for the help!
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1118 Posts |
You leaving us forever now blue emu? This is how it starts, you find a penny and pick it up. Since you are already here you mis' as well introduce yourself in the welcoming forum. http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/...?FORUM_ID=56Sorry you can't sell that coin and retire. |
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New Member
Canada
5 Posts |
I'll probably be back... you seem a friendly bunch. Just for interest's sake, I'll clean that penny this weekend and talk to an imaging tech on Sunday... she's driving me back to Oromocto!
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
Submerge it in acetone, pure acetone not nail polish remover. That should take a good bit of it off. Acetone will not touch corrosion. Quote:
I wouldn't do that IMHO. Just look at what it + viniger does to datless buffs. Yikes. Vinegar is an acid, hydrogen peroxide is not. It is an oxidizer not a corrosive. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I'd keep that as an item found. Usually people that find coins consider a found one good luck.
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Moderator
 Canada
10458 Posts |
Those tracks seem like a good place to swing a metal detector in the future...
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Replies: 16 / Views: 2,787 |
Posted 05/15/2015 8:20 pm
