Old World Coins with rust - help?

Gambinotdx

Hi everyone - I'm primarily a currency guy who is getting back into US coin collecting. I was recently going through some old ziplocks of world coins I had from awhile ago and started to realize some might be collectible or at least have silver content worth noting.

The bad news is that these coins have rust on them. Some have a little, others have quite alot. Some are almost to the point where you can't recognize the year or country they are from.

Being that these are just a find to me, I wanted to clean them up just to see what I have. I know in the currency world that cleaning or "doctoring" notes is a huge no-no but in this case, I just want to see what I have. So is there a safe way to clean the rust off?

One coin in particular I have is an 1839 Mexican coin. It's comparable to a US Eisenhower in size. I'm hoping it is silver. anyone have a guess as to what it might be? On the back it says 8RZ 1839 OM10D 20G.

I also found a 1795 US penny. I almost wet my pants when I found that one. I'll try to post pics. but in the meantime, is there a way to clean the rust off of these coins without completely devaluing them? Don't worry, i will NOT be doing any such cleaning to the 1795 penny. that coin, thankfully, is rust free.

Thanks in advance!

ajaan

The Mexican 8R coin is silver. An image will be great.

Gambinotdx

I apologize but the pics I took are 2MB and it'll only accept 50KB. Is there an easy way to resize them? Sorry about this...

lordmarcovan

Use an image hosting site like Photobucket.

Sounds like a potentially interesting lot.

Gambinotdx

ok, I set up a photobucket account.

http://s1321.beta.photobucket.com/user/Gambinotdx/library/

that link *should* bring you to the photos.

these are some of the coins that I thought might have some sort of value. Let me know what you think. thanks for your expertise!!!

cladking

Don't clean them.

It's unlikely you can increase the value and quite likely you will decrease it.

You'll need specific instructions or knowledge for what to do if any require cleaning.

lordmarcovan

Wow, that does look like rust. Normally I would've said, "hey, silver coins don't rust", which is true, but apparently those were stored in some kind of old tin that did rust.

The good news is that it all looks like silver. The bad news is that I don't think there is a whole lot you can do about the rust without resorting to abrasive cleaning methods, which would be bad news. Maybe electrolysis would work, but you'd need an electrolysis setup for that, obviously.

They're worth the silver value, at least. I see mostly British coins there, though I did see a Cuban one. Without checking dates or anything, generally speaking they appear to be pretty common types, so basically you've got yourself a little bit of "junk silver" that's worth the bullion value.

But hey, wow- nice pickup on that 1795 US cent, though! Needless to say, that's a cool find!

Gambinotdx

Thanks guys! I greatly appreciate the feedback.

There are lots of other coins in the lot, which is where the rust came from. I think different metals, added with some moisture, reacted with each other. I'm sure they were also stored in an old tin of some sort at one point or another so that didn't help matters. The coins in the photos are the best ones I could pick out that I thought may be of some value. When I get around to it, I'll take pictures of them all and go from there.

So if I'm not interested in keeping them what's the best way to sell them? I assume taking it to a local dealer would be best because the rust stains will just deter people from seeing their melt value on ebay.

I'll continue searching through them and will not do any cleaning. thanks again!

ajaan

linkification

MacCrimmon

That close-up of the 8R looks more like wax.

Tin can + high temps + wax = runny wax adhering to the coins. Given the hint on that 8R, I'd take the entire lot (silver coins anyway) and put them in acetone and see if it doesn't dissolve.

You'll actually need to run them through successive acetone baths to get 99% of the organics off (I'm betting it's not rust.........unless the coins have a ferrous alloy).



P.S. Take a much larger image of that '95 cent and post on the US side, if not already.

MacCrimmon

Does that 1795 cent have stars on it, like this one???

Gambinotdx

ok, I'll try to take a better picture. My camera isn't very good.

I've looked at it till my eyes hurt and I don't see any stars. The 1/100 is clear but I don't see any stars along the border.

I assume that would have made it very valuable? lol

Gambinotdx

<< <i>That close-up of the 8R looks more like wax.

Tin can + high temps + wax = runny wax adhering to the coins. Given the hint on that 8R, I'd take the entire lot (silver coins anyway) and put them in acetone and see if it doesn't dissolve.

You'll actually need to run them through successive acetone baths to get 99% of the organics off (I'm betting it's not rust.........unless the coins have a ferrous alloy).



P.S. Take a much larger image of that '95 cent and post on the US side, if not already. >>



it's not wax but it does tend to come off very slowly when scraping it with my finger nail. but I mean it barely comes off, which makes me believe it is rust. It's almost like it was in contact with copper and when the copper turned green, it ran off onto the coin. Is that a possibility?

I mean if you saw what some of the other coins look like you would be ashamed. lol they are completely covered in rust/discoloration. I'll take pics of those too and get them posted.