Expert: Bruce Goldstein - 8/5/2008

Question
I found an object on the beach encased in material and was able to remove part of the debris before I realized it may be a coin. The exposed part has 95 exposed and partially exposed before the 95 is what looks like a 7. It appears to be gold/bronze or such. However around the edges is a dark material similar to iron ore that has oxidized. The strange part is that in between the faces of the object is a dark brown material. It does have a ridge around the edges on both sides. I would have thought it was a coin but with the center being composed of a different material I was not sure. Is this a coin? How do I identify and clean without destroying? It is about the same size as a US nickel.

Answer
If the item is gold, it should not corrode or turn any dark color normally.  Your description is not good enough for me to determine what the coin is.  I need to see pictures.  If it's non-US, I would suggest that you resubmit your question to another Expert.  You might also want to submit pictures to one of the many coin forums on the Internet, such as CoinCommunity.com.