The Coin / Medallion I found under an old house
The Mystery Coin
The other day I wrote about finding some interesting things under an old house (where the floorboards used to be) and said I would reveal what the coin I found was.
Well it is as follows:
Silver Medallion – May 12 1937 To Commemorate the Coronation of their Majesties – Western Australia
Unusual coin / medallion, but it is damaged from being in a high salt soil, but still came up good after cleaning.
Silver Medallion - May 12 1937 To Commemorate the Coronation of their Majesties - Western Australia
Silver Medallion - May 12 1937 To Commemorate the Coronation of their Majesties - Western Australia
Same coin but for sale on Ebay in better condition
Same coin but for sale on Ebay in better condition
Before – After Photo – Cleaning a Silver Ring using Electrolysis
The Silver Ring after Electrolysis Cleaning
The other day I wrote a post on finding a Silver Ring ( <- original post) which had been in a Lake with extremely high Salinity and I promised that I would give the ring a good clean and post some before and after photos.
Well I have finally got my act together and taken the photo of the ring after being cleaned.
I mentioned in the original post that I would give the Tumbling machine a workout via cleaning the ring, well I tried that, and it took too long, so I decided that I would clean the ring using my favourite method, and that is the Electrolysis Method.
It is extremely risky when using this method to clean coins, I would not recommend you clean old copper coins with this method, as I have ruined a few by doing it. However it is perfect for cleaning Silver Rings and Silver Coins, basically anything silver, but it is to be used at your own risk.
Silver Ring - Before and After Cleaning using Electrolsis
To get your silver coins and rings nice and clean, basically this is what I use:
-
- 12 Volt Car Battery Charger
- 2 Table Spoons of Salt
- 2 Cups of hot or cold water
- Few squirts or squeezes of lemon juice
- 1 old stainless steel teaspoon (you will never use it again)
1.Place the tablespoons of Salt in a glass or ceramic dish
2. Pour the hot or cold water over the Salt in the dish
3. Ensuring the Battery Recharger is Turned Off attach the Negative Alligator Clip to the Coin or the Ring, place in the water, emmersing all of the ring or the coin.
4. Ensuring the Battery Recharger is Turned Off attach the Positive Alligator Clip to the Stainless Steel Spoon, place the spoon in the water, ensuring that neither of the Alligator Clips touch the opposite clip, or that the ring does not touch the spoon. Dangerous Sparkies!
5. Turn the power on, and then the water surrounding coin or the ring will start bubbling or foaming, there is no real time limit, sometimes it is quick and sometimes it takes a while, however you will notice alot of dirt and grit coming off the coin or the ring and the water will turn a dark brown colour.
6. When your ready, turn the power off and examine the ring or the coin, wash under some water and clean with your fingers or a soft toothbrush under the running water, and then start over again when ready, by adding new water and bicarbonate soda.
7. You will also notice that sometimes your Stainless Steel spoon will actually dissolve, that’s normal, so make sure you use a spoon that you are not attached to.
8. Give the coins or ring a good clean after using a soft polishing clother and some Silvo, or Goddards Cleaning Cream or another good Silver Cleaning product.
Start of the Electrolsyis Cleaning of the Silver Ring
End of the Electrolsyis Cleaning of the Silver Ring
Metal Detecting Withdrawal Symptoms Fixed! Silver Ring Found!
Rusty Ring? No - It is Silver and Silver does not Rust! Before after Photos Coming Soon!
Over the last week I have not had any time to go out Metal Detecting, due to the Easter Holidays and spending time with my family, so yesterday it was time for me to go out bush to go and find some stuff before I went crazy as I was seriously having withdrawal symptoms!
Winter is not too far away and the days are getting shorter, so I left around 4pm with a couple of hours to spare until darkness, I decided that I would go out to my towns local Lake, Lake Dumbleyung and to some hunting for possible lost rings!
Anyhow I arrived there, covered myself in some insect repellant, because the flies are really bad out there and off I went.
A friend of mine Tony from Sydney Metal Detector Services gave me a few metal detecting tips for when searching in salt water and very mineralized conditions. I have a Minelab Etrac Metal Detector and I set the detector into the settings he gave me and off I went.
The section of the Lake I went to is the old Water Ski Club, at the moment the Lake is near on dry, but very muddy around 50 metres from the shoreline. I just basically detected around the ski boat ramp area and where people would swim when the Lake is full of water. I found the usual lot of pull tabs, and then a old silver coin, I think it is an Australian Six Pence, so obviously that coin had been sitting in the water for over 40 years.
Then I got my self I nice tone, and dug around, the soil was like brick hard clay, and after around 10 minutes of digging around, I found myself a ring!
I have attached the photos of the Ring, I think it is a Silver Ring, as you can see, the ring is very tarnished, which is to be expected with a Silver Ring laying in Salty conditions for a long period of time. And the same goes with the Silver Six Pence I found.
I also went for a bit of a walk on the salty flats, I was amazed to find a beautiful old glass coca cola bottle just laying half buried on the Lake, so I presume that bottle had been there for at least 25 to 30 years or more, it is obviously a bit weather worn, but other wise in excellent condition, no cracks no chips.
I love finding Old Bottles, that is another hobbie of mine. See my Old Bottle Collection
The Old Australian Glass Coca Cola Bottle I found on the Lake bed
As I mentioned above and you can see in the photos I have attached, both the Silver Ring and the Silver Six Pence are very tarnished, so much so, that you would not know they are silver.
So I have decided to do another Coin Cleaning and Silver Ring Cleaning experiment.
Currently I have both the coin and the ring, soaking in an ice cream container, which I covered the bottom with some foil, placed the ring and the coin on top of the foil, then put around 4 big table spoons of Bicarbonate Soda on top of the ring and the coin. Then I covered the ring and the coin in about 2 litres of boiling hot water.
I will let that soak for 24 hours, then I am going to clean them up in my Lortone Tumbler using some very fine tumbling grit and watch the tumbling very closely so I do not do any damage to the ring and especially the coin, which could be of value.
My Lortone Coin - Rock and Jewellery Tumblers
So I will keep you up to date and post some before and after cleaning photos of the Silver Coin and Silver Ring.
Anyhow, It was great to get out for a couple of hours yesterday, there is nothing better that going metal detecting, it always clears the mind and makes you feel great.
Tarnished Silver Sixpence - You can just see King Edward VII's head! Before - After Cleaning Pics coming soon!
Cleaning Silver Coins and Silver Ring – Before and After Photos
.925 Stamped Sterling Silver Ring - Before and After Cleaning
If your a reader of this blog, the other day I wrote a post on finding some Coins and a Silver Ring in a Western Australian Lake (Lake Dumbleyung) which has extreme salinty, so salty that it is more saltier than the Dead Sea.
The coins were totally encrusted with mud, salt, tiny stones, shells and grit, so much so that it was basically like concrete. The Silver Ring was not so bad, but was badly tarnished, basically it was totally black from being in the salty water and black mud for many years.
So I put myself to task to attempt to clean the coins and the ring.
I knew that if the coins were also silver then they would be basically still okay, but if the coins were copper Australian Pennys then they would be basically beyond repair.
I tried a few cleaning techniques, the first cleaning method I used was soaking the coins in Distilled water for a couple of days, but I lost my patience with that as I knew it would just take too long, so then I used the good old Electrolysis Coin Cleaning method and that worked a treat.
When I originally found the coins in the Lake, I didn’t have a clue about what type of coins they were. All up there was around 10 coins I found.
The electrolysis helped me identify what the coins were as follows:
1 x $2 coin
1 x $1 coin
1 x 20 cent coin
3 x Australian Copper Pennys
3 x Silver Shillings and
1 x Silver Sixpence
As predicted apart from the Silver Coins, the other non silver coins were basically ruined from corrosion. The Australian pennys were basically paper thin, eaten away by corrosion and other chemical reactions and only one of the pennys was just barely identifiable as you can see in the photo below … the Queens head!
But amazingly the Silver Shillings and the Silver Sixpence came out in excellent condition, and what strikes me as being so amazing is that the four silver coins I found, had been buried in the black salty mud for at least 50 YEARS! Yes there was some mild deterioration of the silver, but nothing like the other coins.
Once I could make out the dates of the coins, I went to a good Australian Coin Values website to see if I had hit the lucky jackpot and found myself a coin of value, but unfortunately there only worth a few bucks at most.
After I finished with the Electrolysis cleaning, I cleaned up the Silver Coins with some Goddards Silver Cleaning Cream and a soft cloth , and they came out pretty good, as did the Silver Ring I found also which is stamped .925, which means it is Sterling Silver 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper.
Here are the before and after pics. Click on the photos to get a better view.
Australian Silver Shillings - Cleaning Before and After
Australian Silver Sixpence - Before and After Cleaning
Australian Copper Pennys - Before and After Cleaning
Cleaning Jewellery Before After Photos
I have spent ages cleaning up a couple a nice finds I found, one at a beach and the other at an old Ghost Town. I used my coin tumbler, not much luck, brasso, not much luck, silvo, not much luck, Goddards Silver and Gold Cleaner, not much luck.
So then I used the good old toothbrush, some very fine Grit which I bought from Aussie Sapphire, I wet the toothbrush and dipped it in some Grit and lightly scrubbed away and then to my delight both pieces came up rather nicely as you can see below … click the photos for a better look.
Before After Cleaning - Victorian Belt Clasp - Ghost Town Find - Possibly Gold?
- Before After Cleaning – Old Gold Necklace Charm – Beach Find
I am pretty impressed, because the Victorian Belt Clasp dates back possibly to the late 19th Century, and because it was so tarnished, I thought it was either Tin, Copper or Brass, now I am debating to whether it might actually be Gold.
