Cleaning Coins???

OutBack Duo

Hero Member
Apr 21, 2005
924
38
Olathe, KS
Detector(s) used
Minelab SE PRO
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I never clean Clad any more. I wash them in soap and water and then take them to a local bank that has a self service coin counting machine. I dump them in and it doesn't care what they look like. It usually accepts every one of them except the zinc pennies. Silver coins you shouldn't have to clean, they usually come out of the ground just as shiny as the day they were lost thats how you know you have found silver.
 

Will_detect4food

Full Member
May 2, 2006
224
2
Gold Coast
I use ultrasonic cleaner for clad, but if it was a coin that was valuable I would use a different method , such as electrolysis, or for a really nice piece soak in distilled water for a long time
 

Mighty AP

Silver Member
Mar 7, 2006
3,058
22
Livin' in a tar-paper shack in the woods of Easter
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I just cleaned $30 of very dark, dirty clad in a rock tumbler & it worked great! I dont turn it in at the bank, mix it in with my jug of pocket change. I separate pennies from the rest & keep them on the entertainment center for pizza boy tips, etc. I ran a couple handfulls at a time in straight vinegar, ran each batch about 3 hours. The quarters, nickels & dimes come out nice if you run them long enough, mine were very dark. Just dont mix pennies with silver while running, your quarters will have a slight copper color to them. And never run any "keeper" coins in a tumbler. Try a small batch in straight vinegar, it will work! ;D
 

mlw67

Bronze Member
Apr 27, 2006
1,293
12
Portland, OR
I don't clean my clad, either. I used to use a rock tumbler, but now I just stick them in my pocket and spend them. The best place to spend them is the self-service check-out lanes they are putting in everywhere nowadays. Those machines don't care how icky looking the coins are! The half-eaten zinc pennies won't work in the machines though. I try to not even dig those up, but when I do I just pass them off one at a time mixed in with nice looking coins.
 

DJ_Quinn

Bronze Member
Apr 25, 2005
1,253
40
Southeastern Ireland
Anyone use an ultrasonic cleaner? I could have had a large one mounted on a stainless steel table for free a few weeks ago but my wife wasn't as keen on the idea as I was. It had a gas line to heat the water as well, so I don't think it wouul;d have been ideal for my purposes. I do use electrolysis on some coind=s, but never on clad, which I don't find in Ireland anyway. Just lots of big coppers. I have a lot of other artifacts to clean and am keeping my eyes open for a small desk top ultrasonic cleaner. Anyone have any experience with these?
 

goldencoin

Gold Member
Sep 27, 2005
5,669
446
Indiana
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i just don't clean clad and just pass it off a fast food places where people don't care....

For the people with electrolysis machines and ultrasonic machines-

Do either of the machines damage the coin? ( if the answer is yes don't bother with the others)
How much time do they take?
What is the average cost of usage?
 

Bavaria Mike

Gold Member
Feb 7, 2005
8,340
177
Bavaria Germany
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I use a coin tumbler for the American clad and European Euros. Don't clean anything that might be a key date or valuable. HH, Mike
 

Dave N Japan

Bronze Member
Mar 31, 2006
1,192
539
Japan
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CZ-3D, CZ-20,CZ-21, F-75 LTD, AT Pro, F-44
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Harbor Freight has a good cheap tumbler! I also do all my water in a tumbler...then use them little at a time or put them in a coke machine and hit the change lever! Here in Japan!
 

goldencoin

Gold Member
Sep 27, 2005
5,669
446
Indiana
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what about the ultrasonic... i have coins in distilled water and i really don't wish to damage them. I also heard from someone that they can get distilled water from a hymidifier, is that true and how do i do it?

Thanks
-GC
 

petersra

Hero Member
Apr 26, 2006
577
14
a few miles from the ocean
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I just recently started MD and have only worked the salt water beach. Have found nothing old yet. Any clad that has been there very long is heavily corroded. I have been successful in using straight vinegar, but it clearly takes some of the finish off. If you are just going to spend it, that is probably not a problem. If I find anything significant that needs cleaning I will likely try electrolysis once I figure out how to set that up. I have seen several hints at its use on this forum and the process is probably detailed on another post.
 

Glenns5900

Sr. Member
Dec 14, 2005
269
1
Longmont, CO USA
Detector(s) used
Whites 5900 Di Pro (not SL) Old, but still good
TIMEWARP......... :D

Fast forward to the future.... It's now the year 2106 and the latest message on the forum (if it still exists) is....

"Don't ever clean any clad coins you find in a rock tumbler. They are too valuable as most of them disintegrated because of the two dis-similar metals used to make them by the year 2050. These 100+ year old clad coins are just not found anymore. The latest coin book shows most of these to be worth over $2,100.00 in WorldEuros."

Just a thought..... What will this hobby turn into in 100 years? Will there still be Metal Detectors, Plastic Detectors, Wood Detectors? Food for thought.
 

Born2Dtect

Bronze Member
Jun 11, 2004
1,683
68
Hurlock, Maryland
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Looks like almost everything was covered. An observation:; " I really am awed by the amount of good silver and gold that comes out of the ground in fairly good condition." Older coins 50- 200 years were better made than the crap they make now. I have a 2 year old penny that is half eaten.

Ed Donovan
 

wmas1960

Sr. Member
May 17, 2005
260
2
Chicagoland
tchimes said:
I started my cleaning of clad by accident. I was washing clothes and would notice pocket change laying in bottom of tub after clothes were washed. It all ways was clean and bright. So I said what the hey and got a small mess bag, dummped some in it and through it in with a load of jeans and when finished they looked great.


Try it sometimes

KAS Tchimes

I have noticed the same thing. I woud guess that it is working like a big rock tumbler. I don't know if the detergent (Liquid Tide in my case) makes a difference.

Incidentally, on this subject, I guess I posted my thoughts in another similar thread the other night. I had been going through all my change that I have laying around the house. Not the metal detecting stuff but just my pocket change that I throw into my banks and jars and coffee cans and such. I was separating out some of the good stuff. Going through my Halves that I had brought back from playing Blackjack in Vegas, I found a 1964 and a couple 1969 Kennedy's. In a coffee can full of dimes, I found one silver, 1960, I think. Then, I have found an assortment, about 9 or 10 wheaties and 11 Canadian. Among all this, I have about a dozen or so pennies that were so crusted or corroded with green stuff that I thought I would clean them up and put them back with all the pocket stuff. I have been playing with different methods as this is stuff that is so bad, I don't know what it is and is stuff that I just want to put back into circulation.

I started with dawn and letting it all soak for a couple days. Nothing. So, not knowing what else, I thought of when I clean our pots and pans, (Stainless Emeril Wear) and how the copper band (copper plate) in the bottom always seems to clean super bright, almost on contact, with Barkeepers Friend, I sprinkeled some of that in a container with some water and let the coins soak for about 10 minutes. Most of them shined right up perfectly but there was still some crud that wouldn't come off that easilly. Reading to see if anyone else had experience with Barkeepers, I came accross some sites about science projects and using acid (lemon juice or vinegar) and salt. I tried that hoping that it would take more of the crud off. It seems that it might have but then all the coins, the next morning, were black, accept where they were in contact with other coins. From what I had read, this wasn't supposed to happen. Maybe there was some other impurity in the water or something.

So, back to Barkeepers but the black isn't coming off as easy.

I might take a hint, or should I say reminder, from your post and take the 2 or 3 pairs of jeans that I have laying around. The ones that are so torn and tattered that I was going to pitch them. Cut them into strips and chunks and put them into one of those sacks that you describe (mesh). Then, throw it all in the laundry. It might not be a bad idea to throw other clothes in also so that the drum doesn't go off balance. Use some older work clothes or something so that, good clothes don't get messed up by anything on the coins.

Denim does have a texture and can be a little abrasive. Thus why it might be good. I remember when I was taking jewelry classes, I discovered that when making wax models I could get a nice effect by rubbing the models on my jeans to buff them. Some others would clean up their models with needle files or fine sandpaper etc. The professor saw me rubbing my molds on my pants leg and asked what I was doing. I told her that I found that it gave the surface a nice soft looking appearance.

I am thinking here that I might cut up some of the jeans into patches, about 2x2" and then some into strips. Take the strips and tie them into knots. That way you get a variation in hardness from the knots and the softness of the patches. Might work pretty good.
 

wmas1960

Sr. Member
May 17, 2005
260
2
Chicagoland
ecdonovan said:
Looks like almost everything was covered. An observation:; " I really am awed by the amount of good silver and gold that comes out of the ground in fairly good condition." Older coins 50- 200 years were better made than the crap they make now. I have a 2 year old penny that is half eaten.

Ed Donovan


Definitely. I noticed it also. Out of the small sample of pennies that i have been trying to clean there is a big difference in the conditions. The newer ones that are caked with corrosion and all, when you are able to clean it away, you see big pits into the coin. The edges are sometimes eaten away and 2 of the ones I found are so bad there isn't any hope. I think I read somewhere, especially with pennies, that the alloy is specifically engineered to dissintegrate or dissolve in the ground over time. Probably a response to the fact that so many pennies go unspent and hoarded. The older ones though, when the green corrosion and crust is cleaned off, the surface seems to be far better. I found one penny that was so bad that I couldn't read a date on it. I had no idea what it was other than I could see the Lincoln Memorial on the back. After soaking it in Barkeepers, it came out perfectly bright and clean as new. I had to rub at it a little to get the stubborn crud off but it turned out to be a nice early 60s cent. I didn't really look too closely but it didn't seem to have any pitting or other surface damage. It looked as bright and shiny as new. Sitting side by side with the newer coins that I had set asside, it doesn't have the high polish or shine that a new penny does but it seems to have a nicer, richer color.

I have also noticed that some of the later coins, maybe around late 60s to early 70s soemtimes have a reddish color to them where the earlier coins seem to have a browner patina. Is this just a progression of aging? The newer coins seem to have a higher shine and also, sometimes have funky color variations going on among their aging patina.
 

Michigan Badger

Gold Member
Oct 12, 2005
6,797
148
Northern, Michigan
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willow stick
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I've been all over the place on this cleaning thing. I've used the rock tumbler and just about every other method. Most work--some better than others.

As for old keeper coins I'm now leaving as much of the aged patina on the coin as possible. I think an Indian cent with a smooth green patina has much more going for it than one that was stripped, polished, and is now that artificial icky salmon color :-[

Any collector of old silver coins will tell you he prefers his CIRCULATED silver coins NATURALLY toned. To most collectors, polished bright and shiny silver coins are only a notch or two above junk. That darkened toning on dug silver is worth money--don't wash it away. It gives a coin or relic character.

All I seek is to reveal as much detail as I can and leave as much of that aged color as possible.

As for clad I just wash it and spend it.

Badger
 

PBK

Gold Member
May 25, 2005
6,380
269
Michigan Badger said:
All I seek is to reveal as much detail as I can and leave as much of that aged color as possible.
Badger

I'm with you, Badger! I'm not saying there aren't times when a little cautious cleaning can result in a definite improvement, but once a coin has been changed, there's no going back. Artificial toning on copper or silver coins is like an acid-etched date on a worn nickel: any knowledgeable collector can spot it in a second, and it adds absolutely no value. Again, there are always exceptions, but generally the best thing you can do for an old coin is to give it a really good "leaving alone."
 

wmas1960

Sr. Member
May 17, 2005
260
2
Chicagoland
tchimes said:
Hey vmas

I use liquid Tide to LOL. All I know is throw the coins in the mesh bag, a onion bag works good to. Wash my jeans and coins are clean to. I do not think the coins hurt the jeans, if nothing more, they make them a little broke in.



KAS Tchimes

I am sure they wouldn't hurt the jeans. Your right, they probably would maybe wear them in some. But, being in a bag I don't think that would be as effective if they were loose. But then, you would have the noise and the issue of coins taking the enamel (sp?) off the inside of your wash drum. I was just thinking if they were dirty with, *#$ knows what, it would be better just using some old clothes that aren't important. Also, putting the strips and patches in the bag with the coins, or in a tumbler, might actually be a good thing.
 

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