AirmetTango
Forum Supporter
I've only found 5 War Nickels in my short experience as a detectorist, but my first 4 have all clean up very nicely under running water and maybe some dish soap. Last week I found my first stubborn, crusty War Nickel - no amount of water and dish soap removed any of the yellow crud and black sulfur crust that encrusted the entire nickel.
I remembered having very good results using aluminum foil, baking soda, and hot water on a Merc dime that I found last year that had heavy black sulfur staining that wouldn't come off any other way, so I decided to try that on the War Nickel, too. I was so confident that it would work, I even decided to film the process and make my first metal detecting related YouTube video. Well, it was a flop - as good as the technique worked on the Merc, it didn't even touch the crud on the War Nickel! The best theory I can come up with is that the low silver content in the War Nickel coupled with the extreme crud coating just isn't enough to feed the electrochemical reaction.
So, I changed gears and got more aggressive than I've ever been with cleaning a silver coin: scrubbing with a toothbrush and baking soda. Still no results at all - the nickel looked just as crusty as ever.
What finally worked? The lowly pencil eraser! Wracking my brain, I finally remembered reading a post or watching a video were someone recommended using a plain old eraser to shine up crusty, lost-cause silver coins. Figuring I had nothing to lose because the nickel was pretty shot, I set to work - and 20 minutes later, I was down one complete eraser, but I had gained a pretty nice looking 1945 P War Nickel!
Here's my video of the debacle with the aluminum/baking soda effort, but it also includes a wrap up following the eraser cleaning, which I unfortunately couldn't film:
Also, below are a series of photos showing the War Nickel 1) after the water/dish soap treatment soon after digging, 2) After electrochemical attempt, but before eraser, 3) midway through the eraser treatment, 4) final results:
I remembered having very good results using aluminum foil, baking soda, and hot water on a Merc dime that I found last year that had heavy black sulfur staining that wouldn't come off any other way, so I decided to try that on the War Nickel, too. I was so confident that it would work, I even decided to film the process and make my first metal detecting related YouTube video. Well, it was a flop - as good as the technique worked on the Merc, it didn't even touch the crud on the War Nickel! The best theory I can come up with is that the low silver content in the War Nickel coupled with the extreme crud coating just isn't enough to feed the electrochemical reaction.
So, I changed gears and got more aggressive than I've ever been with cleaning a silver coin: scrubbing with a toothbrush and baking soda. Still no results at all - the nickel looked just as crusty as ever.
What finally worked? The lowly pencil eraser! Wracking my brain, I finally remembered reading a post or watching a video were someone recommended using a plain old eraser to shine up crusty, lost-cause silver coins. Figuring I had nothing to lose because the nickel was pretty shot, I set to work - and 20 minutes later, I was down one complete eraser, but I had gained a pretty nice looking 1945 P War Nickel!
Here's my video of the debacle with the aluminum/baking soda effort, but it also includes a wrap up following the eraser cleaning, which I unfortunately couldn't film:
Also, below are a series of photos showing the War Nickel 1) after the water/dish soap treatment soon after digging, 2) After electrochemical attempt, but before eraser, 3) midway through the eraser treatment, 4) final results:
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