A friend of mine and a member of one of our ancient coin groups, Shay, asked me to zap a fibula for her and I agreed. The fibula arrived in the mail this afternoon and I busied myself with setting up one of my special zappers. The pin was"locked" in place and I really wanted to salvage the pin. I was intent on shooting for a functional, working fibula. The hinged area of the fibula was the most heavily encrusted and it was of the concrete variety!
You can see the from the photos above what I saw when the unit arrived. The coin has nothing to do with the exercise other than to hold the fibula in place. I worked for hours and slowly pushed and prodded with my bamboo skewers until the crust slowly gave way with the exception of the hinged area. I encountered something really strange as I reached the hinged area of the pin.
I used a small grinder to remove some of the heavier protrusions and the rock-hard substance had the scent of epoxy. The degree of harness in that area was unlike anything I have encountered in all the zapping I have done. I slowly rotated the fibula through the solution and back to my bamboo sticks and reluctantly the coin finally gave up the last bits of crust.
The fibula works really well and appears to be in the same condition it would have been in hundreds of years ago. All in all the experience was very satisfying and I hope Shay enjoys the piece. The "plastic" or "epoxy" experience was something new for me and I will add it to my list of unknowns. Thank you for allowing me to share and please bookmark my blog.. God Bless.. Jerry..
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