Kimster
02-28-2011, 06:07 PM
I first met Napa Steve MDing in a soccer field in our home town of Napa, California. I asked him if he wanted to partner up, and the rest is history.
The first time out together, he and his brother, Dale, took me to their “Secret Spotâ€. Steve and Dale had found several old silvers at this location.
Within five minutes I found a 1911 and a 1914 wheatie (as a consequence of the excitement over my next two finds, I failed to ever mention the wheaties to Steve and Dale). My next two finds, less than two feet apart, were 1910 and 1914 barber halves.
Now, I was pretty excited as I never expected to find a silver half in my entire metal detecting career (I was wrong as I have found two other silver halves since that day, one of which is a 1858!). But, being this was Steve and Dale’s “Secret Spotâ€, I assumed at that these guys found this kind of stuff all the time. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that I realized that these two halves were two of the best finds to come out of this site (beginner’s luck I guess).
Well, anyway, both silver coins had a green tarnish which was impossible to get off. I tried several things including rubbing (yeah, I know…you’re not suppose to rub…but I didn’t have any intention of getting rid of these coins) with baking soda and salt, scrubbing with strong detergents, etc. Nothing would touch this tarnish (some people recommended electrolysis which I didn’t know how to use and was afraid would damage the coins, more so than rubbing was going to damage them). So I put them away and gave up on removing the tarnish.
Then Dale introduced Steve and I to Raytech Compound D. Here's the link to the website:
http://www.raytechmetalfinishing.com/centrifugal-finishers/magnetic-finisher-medias/raymf_mf_mm_compd.php
$12 per quart and $34 per gallon with an added cost of $6 for shipping in either quantity (order a gallon and split the cost with a buddy and get twice as much for half the price…do the math). I soaked both coins in a 50% solution (50% water) of this relatively harmless substance (it is a concentrated cleaning compound with low hazard as shown on the Material Data Sheet that comes with the product), followed by a cleaning with a tooth brush. I repeated this about three times for each coin with a soak of about an hour each time.
The first photo below shows the heads side of the 1910 coin before the tarnish was removed (the tails sides were relatively tarnish-free on both coins). Unfortunately, I didn’t photograph the tarnished side of the 1914 coin. The tarnish was much worse on the 1914 coin but I only photographed the good tails side.
The next set of photos shows both sides of both coins. Notice that the tarnish is removed from both coins. The bottom line is that Raytech Compound D, a relatively benign substance, took off all the tarnish with almost no effort.
I thought the forum members might get some benefit from this story if they have some cleaning to do on tough coins that shouldn’t be tumbled. :)
Notice on the heads side of the cleaned 1914 coin there is a fogged area. This is the residue from the tarnish that covered amost the entire heads side of the coin. I'm sure a little buffing would remove this fog.
The first time out together, he and his brother, Dale, took me to their “Secret Spotâ€. Steve and Dale had found several old silvers at this location.
Within five minutes I found a 1911 and a 1914 wheatie (as a consequence of the excitement over my next two finds, I failed to ever mention the wheaties to Steve and Dale). My next two finds, less than two feet apart, were 1910 and 1914 barber halves.
Now, I was pretty excited as I never expected to find a silver half in my entire metal detecting career (I was wrong as I have found two other silver halves since that day, one of which is a 1858!). But, being this was Steve and Dale’s “Secret Spotâ€, I assumed at that these guys found this kind of stuff all the time. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that I realized that these two halves were two of the best finds to come out of this site (beginner’s luck I guess).
Well, anyway, both silver coins had a green tarnish which was impossible to get off. I tried several things including rubbing (yeah, I know…you’re not suppose to rub…but I didn’t have any intention of getting rid of these coins) with baking soda and salt, scrubbing with strong detergents, etc. Nothing would touch this tarnish (some people recommended electrolysis which I didn’t know how to use and was afraid would damage the coins, more so than rubbing was going to damage them). So I put them away and gave up on removing the tarnish.
Then Dale introduced Steve and I to Raytech Compound D. Here's the link to the website:
http://www.raytechmetalfinishing.com/centrifugal-finishers/magnetic-finisher-medias/raymf_mf_mm_compd.php
$12 per quart and $34 per gallon with an added cost of $6 for shipping in either quantity (order a gallon and split the cost with a buddy and get twice as much for half the price…do the math). I soaked both coins in a 50% solution (50% water) of this relatively harmless substance (it is a concentrated cleaning compound with low hazard as shown on the Material Data Sheet that comes with the product), followed by a cleaning with a tooth brush. I repeated this about three times for each coin with a soak of about an hour each time.
The first photo below shows the heads side of the 1910 coin before the tarnish was removed (the tails sides were relatively tarnish-free on both coins). Unfortunately, I didn’t photograph the tarnished side of the 1914 coin. The tarnish was much worse on the 1914 coin but I only photographed the good tails side.
The next set of photos shows both sides of both coins. Notice that the tarnish is removed from both coins. The bottom line is that Raytech Compound D, a relatively benign substance, took off all the tarnish with almost no effort.
I thought the forum members might get some benefit from this story if they have some cleaning to do on tough coins that shouldn’t be tumbled. :)
Notice on the heads side of the cleaned 1914 coin there is a fogged area. This is the residue from the tarnish that covered amost the entire heads side of the coin. I'm sure a little buffing would remove this fog.