Hello everyone,
I got my new excal 2 weeks ago and had my first chance to get out and give it a good go this week. By pure chance, I picked a beach that had been hammered by big waves over the weekend and had left a big cutout at high water mark . I concentrated on the area close to the cutout and where the flags would normally be set up in the summer. Had a great few hours on Monday so went back yesterday and again today. In total 10 hours hunting turned up 164 coins ( 19 predecimals including 3 florins & 6 shillings ) , 3 rings ( one gold with small diamonds (?) & 2 silver; all very old ). I think I've recovered every 1 cent piece lost on that beach since 1966 . Amazing thing was absence of rubbish; only found 4 ringpulls, no bottle caps or foil and lots of sinkers. Seems the big waves cleaned out all the junk. My question is , how do I clean up all these clad coins, most of which are barely identifiable because of the corrosion. I've tried the salt & vinegar treatment with limited success ( though that seems to do a good job on the old silver coins ) I'm wondering if anyone's tried an ultrasonic cleaning machine on badly corroded coins ( might work on jewellery too?) , or is a coin tumbler the only way to go? I know the coins are worth nothing, but theyr'e all part of the collection!
I got my new excal 2 weeks ago and had my first chance to get out and give it a good go this week. By pure chance, I picked a beach that had been hammered by big waves over the weekend and had left a big cutout at high water mark . I concentrated on the area close to the cutout and where the flags would normally be set up in the summer. Had a great few hours on Monday so went back yesterday and again today. In total 10 hours hunting turned up 164 coins ( 19 predecimals including 3 florins & 6 shillings ) , 3 rings ( one gold with small diamonds (?) & 2 silver; all very old ). I think I've recovered every 1 cent piece lost on that beach since 1966 . Amazing thing was absence of rubbish; only found 4 ringpulls, no bottle caps or foil and lots of sinkers. Seems the big waves cleaned out all the junk. My question is , how do I clean up all these clad coins, most of which are barely identifiable because of the corrosion. I've tried the salt & vinegar treatment with limited success ( though that seems to do a good job on the old silver coins ) I'm wondering if anyone's tried an ultrasonic cleaning machine on badly corroded coins ( might work on jewellery too?) , or is a coin tumbler the only way to go? I know the coins are worth nothing, but theyr'e all part of the collection!
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