Crusty gothic florin. UPDATED.

[Easylife]

I found this gothic florin today, it looks to be in quite decent condition under the oxidised crust. Probably a good zap would be best but I don't have that to hand so wondering if foil and bicarb of soda solution would eventually do it?

[Dave The Slave]

Not advising on the cleaning, as i have never found any Silver that needed cleaning.
Looking forward to seeing the date and the coin in all its glory.
Well done,
Dave.

[figgis]

Agree that zappage would yield decent results, but in the absence of that, Jamesey's posted a method here which might suit. You can also soak it in lemon juice.

That crud looks a little solid, so were it me I'd try loosening it by gentle rubbing with bicarb paste. If it works you'll keep the patinated low spots which soaking will remove (though they can always be reinstated).

Look forward to seeing how it turns out

[Jamesey1981]

It should take the grot off, but it might take a while, the key will be making sure that the coin has a good electrical contact with the foil, if they're not touching it won't work.

Won't do any harm to give it a go, it'll either work or it won't.

Have to say I'd probably zap that one, might need a bit more than my method can deliver.

[Oxgirl]

Lemon juice and then bicarb paste, or electrolysis. Personally I prefer the patina left with electrolysis but it’s personal taste I guess.

Love to see the results with whatever method you use

[Easylife]

I also feel that only a zap will really suffice in this case, so won't bother with other methods. I picked up some soda today so just need to find my gentle zapper or rig up another one. My 20A battery charger is okay on rusty horseshoes but would be quite severe on this little fella! ⛏

[Easylife]

I had a scratch about to see what I could find to knock up a zapper. Ideally a dc power supply of 12 - 24v rated at about 1 amp, but a laptop power supply was to hand though maybe be a bit overkill for a coin. So I added an ammeter to the rig just out of interest. A sacrificial stainless steel spoon was needed so I sneaked just a teaspoon as she will less notice it missing.
I pondered over a new zapper design from the minimal materials I had to hand whilst also bearing in mind characteristic pet hates of my previous designs.
In kit form.

Assembled - including a fuse.

Well it blew the crud off the first side in seconds at 4 amps! - what a sulphur stink!

So I found a less powerful dc charger for the other side of the coin, 15v rated at max 1.6A output - but it blasted out 2.6A!
Just a few seconds needed and the water turned dark green.

I can now see that it is an early florin dated 1853. The head side came up quite clean but the obverse is still a bit crusty and maybe beyond repair.

I gave it a rub with some bicarb paste wet foil as it ain't too great, but still the earliest of my four gothic florins. So I'll leave it at that.

I used a soda ratio of 1 tablespoon per gallon of water pro rata - so 3 tea-spoons to my 650ml of water. The current was much higher than I wanted due to limited resources. Less soda ratio would have reduced the current. A larger container and wider spacing would also have reduced the current. Maybe next time!

Do you like my design of utilising a 2L pop bottle with inverted neck? It works great and is quite adjustable.
Yep, I know, I've got too much time on my hands!

[Dave The Slave]

That came up better, with the elusive date.
As i have rarely seen a Victorian Florin, did not realise the Gothic Roman numeral date was used on so many dates.
Cheers,
Dave.