Super crusty silver

[upnorth]

I have never seen silver as crusty as these two today. I popped them from the edge of a highly mineralized half stagnant stream. Any tips other than lemon juice ? for cleaning. These are the the worst that i've seen and I thought that the dime was a copper at first.

 

[BigCatDaddy]

You can try electrolysis, works pretty good!!

How to for Electrolysis

 

[upnorth]

I may have to next time. I am used to silver coins coming out in pretty fair shape. But I am starting to run into some real uglies from the low lying mineralized spots. The lemon juice got a lot of it off and I got a 54 on the quarter and a 52 off the dime.

 

[TheGeorgiaCanuck]

Water and baking soda paste, rub with fingers to shine them up after the lemon bath.

 

[fongu]

That link didn't load, BCD. Nice finds even if they were corroded, upnorth. Silver is always welcome in my finds pouch.

 

[BigCatDaddy]

Do a Bing search for Electrolysis Coin Cleaning and it should come up right at the top of the page.

 

[upnorth]

Yes, I have been using electrolysis for several years now. My last power unit fried and I have to grab a few more. I usually use wall adaptor\transformers. I used this one for several years and she finally went kablooie on me.

 

[fongu]

I'll check it out, BCD.

 

[senda]

I usually take a bath household ammonia to the silver pieces that have severe crusting, but are pieces found in the sea / beach. Calcareous crusts fall apart quickly in a bath of wine vinegar, other household mild acid.
The paste of baking soda and/or ash snuff, cigarette ashes, cleaners are also good but I think for most mild dirt, do not work well with severe crusting.
Congrats by the findings

 

[upnorth]

I usually take a bath household ammonia to the silver pieces that have severe crusting, but are pieces found in the sea / beach. Calcareous crusts fall apart quickly in a bath of wine vinegar, other household mild acid.
The paste of baking soda and/or ash snuff, cigarette ashes, cleaners are also good but I think for most mild dirt, do not work well with severe crusting.
Congrats by the findings

Interesting, thanks. As I said, I usually don't find them this encrusted and it surprised me. The quarter in particular came out kind of worn\dissolved. That mineralization sure seems to do a number on a coin here. I was spoiled with silvers out of rich black loam up north or even in the sandy clay fields out of town down here.

 

[ecoast]

...what do they look like after you got them de-crusted?