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I went out water detecting again yesterday where I`ve found 5 silver so far. This time out I dug out this L.C. It`s been soaking in olive oil. Is that the right thing to do? And being that it came out of the water, can it be saved? What else can I do?
Robbie , please give us better pictures to see the coin's surface , metal color and detail . It will help a lot . For future reference I am not a big fan of olive oil as it really doesn't do much for the coin and makes it very hard for any further cleaning due to the oil covering the metal. Generally coins found in the water or mud and muck hold their detail pretty well due to the lack of oxygen . Was this found in a pond or lake or salt water find ?
Thanks Dan for getting back to me. This water is salt, more brackish .It`s a creek off of the Bay.
Wow, that's in bad shape. :shocked02: Saltvwater and most metals don't play well, and it's pretty amazing a largie fared as good as yours did. After so much time I would have expected swiss cheese at best.
As Chris mentioned Salt water and copper and sometimes silver don't do well together , I m afraid you coin might be pretty done by the elements . When ever you see bright reddish exposed copper is has some damage Robbie . I wish I could offer more help to you.
Thank you both for your input with this one. Dan I`ve read your methods on copper cleaning and peroxide. I wasn't sure that would work on this one being that it`s been in the water for so long, that`s why I went with oil.
Understood Robbie , olive oil is a super slow method and its results are not usually that great after months in the jar . Unfortunately salts , oxygen and fertilizers are the worst for copper coins .Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
I think that each copper will have attributes on whether it can be cleaned with any success or not. I don't use olive oil for coppers. I tried once on my first holed one as it had a nice green patina. It didn't fare any better than it would have if it was in peroxide. The only time I will use oil, which I use mineral oil now instead of olive oil, is if it is something like an IH or wheat where I can see it has just a caking of dirt and I can see some green.