Posted 9 years ago
UncleRon
(41 items)
My personal definition of a "miniature" anything is one that is too small to be of practical use. Lots of knives are called miniature on eBay when in reality they are just small knives. This one, on the other hand, meets my criteria. 1" long, closed, congress pattern; checkered pearl scales and nickel silver bolsters; four blades - all snap; no maker's mark (there's no room!); and a loop for attachment to a watch chain. Probably English or German.
Just try to get on a plane with it ! Be ready for torture & maybe 10-20 yrs without a trial or conviction !
I have been trying to get my Indian Heal Penny clean....Peroxide boils.
Have done this multiple times and still can't get all the funk off and still can't make out date! I'm so curious to see the date ...it's driving me insane!
melaniej- leave the coin in a small amount of olive oil for a week then scrape it gently with a toothpick. If anything comes loose wipe it off right away - the dirt on the coin can contain very fine grit which may scratch it. Repeat. It may take a while depending on what's on the penny.
UncleRon
will do...
in Olive Oil it will go tomorrow and I will post after..
Thank you
I remember seeing a penny just like this in my Great Aunt's jewelry box!
Melanie. You might want to try this 1st if it will save time. Awhile back, a member posted a trick using "soda crystals" for cleaning silver without hurting the silver. When I read your request, I needed to clean some silver anyway, so I tossed in a Dutch (nickel) Antillian guilder & a couple if old dirty U.S. pennies. Sure cleaned everything without hurting any metal. Even cleaned my ole dog-tags ! I lined a ceramic soup bowl with alum. foil, put the stuff in & added maybe 2 tablespoons of the soda crystals. Boil water & cover your stuff with it. Takes tarnish off silver but just seemed to remove crap off the brass & copper without effecting the metal. May be faster, although UncleRon's method probably works. If it's a sticky/gunky stuff, use a solvent. Even petrol & an old toothbrush.
Boiling in a stainless pan with a tsp. of cream of tartar to 2 or 3 cups of water works too but coin collectors don't like the appearance that the chemical treatments leave. I used the olive oil method on some 2000-year-old Roman coins. Its SLOW but leaves a good thick patina on the coins.
UncleRon
Did the olive oil and toothpick method...
worked some..
but don't think there is any hope for this penny :(
but at least I can see some details now.
Well, it probably wasn't worth too much anyway but I hope you had some fun! :-)