By George

[Ken (Australia)]

This mornings finds from Inn site. George IV penny, no date. George IV halfpenny, 1826. Bit cooler today, great to be out. Thanks for looking.....Ken.

 

[John (Australia)]

Hello Ken, You are getting closer to the finds I made at an old Inn site last year, one thing with those old pennies though, the more you clean them the less detail left in some cases.
I found a couple of 1806 pennies then the 1765 Mexican Real so you may find older coins yet.
John

 

[Ken (Australia)]

Your right with the cleaning, I do as little as possible. So far I've got 10 coins from this site, the oldest an 1806 halfpenny. It was an inn from 1840 to 1870 so hopefully there's a few left yet. It's been extensively ploughed over the years so there's bits and pieces spread far and wide but I enjoy looking.....Ken

 

[beachguy777]

John, how are you cleaning them? I would think it depends on how you clean them, might make the difference in the detail thing. I know when I tried the electrolysis method, it would take off some of the really bad green patina, but it would sometimes take off part of the metal too, which might be kind of what your taking about. It seems to me that some of the crud that gets attached to the coin, is so bonded with the metal that if and when you can take it off, it also pulls off part of the coin too. Just curious.

 

[John (Australia)]

Hello Beachguy, I use a cleaner that is called Easy Off Bam and a toothbrush just to get the coins looking reasonable. It has an acid in it so I only keep it on the coins for a matter of seconds before rinsing but it does a great job on silver coins. The very old copper coins though I usually just do enough with a tooth brush, and soap or Tarn Off , to see the date as the corrosion in some cases raises the detail some what as it covered it if you get what I mean, and when it is gone so has the detail because it had been eaten away under the covering. I have also had the opposite where the raised covering cleaned off and left a stencil of the date in the remaining corrosion.
John

 

[beachguy777]

Thanks, John, I'll have to try some of that if I ever find some silver coins to use it on.I know I "got" the right detector, I just need to find the right place to hunt, not these burned out beach's I've been going to lately. Thanks again for the tip.

 

[Golden]

n/t