Big Boys Hobbies

Need advice on a silver walker

Devildog2345

Devildog2345

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
Messages
343
Location
Swansboro, NC
I found this beautiful coin a few months ago in a solid clump of black sand with two other silver dimes in the clump. I've been able to get some of the black !!!! off with gentl methods but the rest of the !!!! is like cement and won't budge. Any ideas? I don't want to ruin the coin because it's in great shape from what I can see.
 

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Cool! Is that stuff tar you think? Giver a shot of Gumout carb cleaner or a soak in gasoline? Maybe try to burn it off with a lighter? Neither could hurt, and that is a beauty of a coin..I'd try the solvents before the fire....
Mud
 
Not tar that I know of. It's a black sand concoction from being in the saltwater for so long. There is a mix of sand and shells that is super hard. I've even tried boiling and then rapidly cooling to try and crack it off with no luck. I'm going to save the solvents until I'm out of other options. Thanks for the tips. :grin:
 
Ive boiled epoxy off of coins by adding 2 ounces of vinegar and 2 ounces of lemon juice in 3 cups of water
 
I know the coin is in great shape, but it's not a key-date, or in such good condition to warrant extreme caution. Try boiling, try freezing, try acid, try electrolysis. Hit it with a ballpeen hammer. Basically I'm saying use whatever method you need as right now it's only value is as a hunk of silver, so you are only going to improve it. You cant hurt it from its current state.
 
Devil, try the solvents one at a time and in a small area.

Will a butane flame soften it up?

If you could soften it up, toothpick removal could work for you.
 
Jason in Enid said:
I know the coin is in great shape, but it's not a key-date, or in such good condition to warrant extreme caution. Try boiling, try freezing, try acid, try electrolysis. Hit it with a ballpeen hammer. Basically I'm saying use whatever method you need as right now it's only value is as a hunk of silver, so you are only going to improve it. You cant hurt it from its current state.
Click to expand...

+2
 
Looks like tar holding sand...

Like Mud suggested, throw it in a jar of gasoline, see if it dissolves it...

When I was a kid we used to get our hands and feet covered in tar... Dad cleaned us up with gasoline!

<°)))>{
 
I suggest some road tar remover from the car care aisle, or some cigarette lighter fluid. If that doesn't work, soften it up with a propane torch and carefully scrape it off with match sticks or toothpicks.
 
have you tried a sonic cleaner? it won't hurt the coin, go to the jewery isle and ask for a sonic cleaner, they have some cheap ones out there. put in some water, a couple drops of dish detergent add in your coin and let it do its thing overnight, check it and let it go for longer if needed. gentle enough for expensive jewlery, but will remove a lot of junk from things, if that don't work I have put carburator cleaner into the sonic cleaner and let it go, that will remove just about everything except the metal, but don't let it evaporate and run dry. carb cleaner is really designed to remove hard junk from soft metal without damaging the metal, it will leave a film but that is easily removed with a soft buffing
 
Crackerjack said:
I suggest some road tar remover from the car care aisle, or some cigarette lighter fluid. If that doesn't work, soften it up with a propane torch and carefully scrape it off with match sticks or toothpicks.
Click to expand...

or soak it in some acetone, that's some strong stuff.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I had already tried electrolysis, but I may do it again once I get it a little cleaner. I've got it sitting in some gasoline right now. I will let you know how it goes.
 
Ok, soaked it in gas overnight and I was able to get a little more off. I tried carb cleaner next, but that really didn't do anything. I'm going to try to tumble it again to see if any of it loosened up. I need to go find one of those sonic cleaners sometime.
 
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