Tesoro Vaquero - Dirty Silver

beephead

Elite Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
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4,348
Location
Germantown, TN
I've been waiting on some rain since my last hunt, but it never came. Today it was cloudy, windy and had a 50% chance of rain. I decided that I couldn't wait any longer, I needed a silver fix.

I decided to detect the yard that was next to the one that I last detected. http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=215207 I had high hopes since I found plenty of silver in the yard next door.

Right off the bat I found a silver quarter. That got me fired up. The next silver coin that I found was so black and dirty that I thought that it was a clad coin at first. After a closer look I realized it was a silver coin.

Then I found what I thought was a junk ring. It was all tarnished so I threw it into my pouch.

The next silver that I got was a mercury dime and it to was also all blacken and tarnished. That made me take a closer look at the ring again. It turns out to be silver, not a junker as I first thought.

This is the first time ever that I've run into blacken coins like this. Most coins that I find come out of the ground as clean as can be. The coins that I found around 40 feet away next door were all bright and shiny. I wonder what the deal is?

Oh yeah, my setting were: discrimination just above iron, a little negative on the ground balance and full sensitivity and I also found 12 wheat pennies.

beephead

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Rub them in between your fingers with baking soda and a few drops of water and they should clean up, if you want them to. Great outing!
 
beephead --

When silver coins get that black, it usually means they've been submerged in water, or VERY wet soil, for long periods of time. And sometimes, baking soda won't clean that type of staining.

Baking soda cleans the light tarnish off of silver, but sometimes not that stuff that happens due to them being in water...

In any case, NICE DIGS!!

Steve
 
beephead --

When silver coins get that black, it usually means they've been submerged in water, or VERY wet soil, for long periods of time. And sometimes, baking soda won't clean that type of staining.

Baking soda cleans the light tarnish off of silver, but sometimes not that stuff that happens due to them being in water...

In any case, NICE DIGS!!

Steve

Thanks. These coins where on top of a slope and not likely to have been in contact with a lot of water. You're right about the baking soda not being able to clean them very easily. It took baking soda, a micro-fiber cloth and a lot of elbow grease to get the crud off. I like seeing silver coins pop out the ground in like new condition.

They look a little better:

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Thanks. These coins where on top of a slope and not likely to have been in contact with a lot of water. You're right about the baking soda not being able to clean them very easily. It took baking soda, a micro-fiber cloth and a lot of elbow grease to get the crud off. I like seeing silver coins pop out the ground in like new condition.

They look a little better:

Vaquero%20Dirty%20Money%20001_zpspvrwfanv.jpg

beephead -- VERY strange; those look a lot like coins that have been in water! I will occasionally dig one that looks like that (and they are REALLY hard to get clean with baking soda), but it's pretty rare. I can think of one or two; like you say, they usually come out of the ground looking much better.

In any case, they did clean up nicely -- even if it took a little extra work!

Super!!

Steve

(BTW -- I'm sure you know this, but it's not a good idea to clean a coin -- with baking soda or ANY such abrasive method -- if it's a coin that has any numismatic value...)
 
When I lived in New Mexico, almost every silver I'd dig looked even blacker than these. The ground definitely wasn't wet. The soil they were in must have had sulfur containing minerals. The black is silver sulfate.
A tip I've learned on cleaning- baking soda scratches silver, if you have to use an abrasive get glass cleaning powder. I found some and tried it, its much, much finer than baking soda.I couldn't see scratches even with a 7x magnifier, but it cleaned them very nicely.
 
Interesting, NMsilver -- so I guess more than just water can indeed cause that grayish black layer on silver...

Glass cleaning powder? Never heard of that. I may have to check that out...

Steve
 
When I lived in New Mexico, almost every silver I'd dig looked even blacker than these. The ground definitely wasn't wet. The soil they were in must have had sulfur containing minerals. The black is silver sulfate.
A tip I've learned on cleaning- baking soda scratches silver, if you have to use an abrasive get glass cleaning powder. I found some and tried it, its much, much finer than baking soda.I couldn't see scratches even with a 7x magnifier, but it cleaned them very nicely.

Interesting... Do you have a product name to recommend by any chance? Would love to try it.
 
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