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Getting an ancient Coin out of a sofa

5 replies

HPonEverything · 13/07/2011 21:26

DH found a coin today, really old (late 1600s), very thin silver.

We were sat on the sofa looking on the laptop trying to work out how much it was worth (answer: not a fortune but anything up to £300). I was cringing as he was just flipping it over in his hand and then surprise surprise he dropped it down the sofa [eye rolling emoticon]

We have a 3-seater electric sofa and it went down the far end seat so we ought to have a rough idea of where it is but sadly it's nowhere to be found. We've tried vacuuming but the vacuum couldn't really get into the very tiny gap effectively. There is a danger it might have dropped under into the mechanism. We don't want to wreck the sofa (DH has had a pretty good go at that too) as it's worth more than the coin!

The coin was a sort of blue colour as we hadn't cleaned it, and it has some silver in it but I don't know what the rest of it is. I have really long thin fingers but no amount of poking came up with the goods.

Any ideas? He is kicking himself as we speak so I won't get any satisfaction from berating him or told-you-so's if anyone wants to suggest that :o

OP posts:

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wellwisher · 13/07/2011 23:51

Really strong magnet? Depends what kind of metal the coin's made of, but it's worth a try.

What the hell is an "electric sofa", by the way? What does it do?

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Naoko · 14/07/2011 00:25

I could lend you a pet rat. They always seem to be digging things up from the side of the sofa that I had no idea were there. Of course, their natural reaction to this is to try and eat whatever they've found...
Um...do you have a small child to hand? Someone with smaller/thinner fingers might be able to get into the gap?

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ninedragons · 14/07/2011 00:26

How adept are you with chopsticks?

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OldLadyKnowsNothing · 14/07/2011 00:31

Forget about it until your sofa is knackered and you're getting a new one. Then dismantle it.

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HPonEverything · 14/07/2011 12:59

lol at some of the responses :o

no chopsticks to hand but I've tried broddling with knitting needles - nothing!

I'll try the magnet idea, and otherwise wait til it just drops out and gets eaten by the dog or a small child.

God it's so frustrating!!

(electric sofa is for very lazy people like myself, and has a button on the side that tilts it back.... downside being lots of mechanical gubbins underneath the seats)