Cleaning Clads...No really!

[T Vernon]

I have heard that people use rock tumblers to clean coins before putting them back into circulation. Has anyone tried the vibrating reloading variety? What is the best method without just hiding them in rolls? hehe
Thanks,
Travis

 

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[Mighty AP]

Hey Vernon, just got one off Ebay, threw a bunch of quarters in 5 mins ago. Running em in vinegar with a shot of dish soap. I'll let ya know how they turn out!

Edit.......
Ran a couple handfulls of quarters & dimes with vinegar & dishsoap for 3 hours & they came out great! These coins were very dark, some red some brown & they all came out great! ready to spend!

 

[tammahawk]

vinager and salt will take a lot of crap off clads , though i would not use it on good coins as it can make the coins metal look a lil milky, but for clads all ya wanna do is clean um up some to get rid of them its fine

 

[Kiros32]

Did you add any sand or pebbles in with the vinegar and salt?

 

[tammahawk]

I dont think sand or pebbles would help much, the patina on coins is some hard stuff, the acid from the vinegar eats at the patina as does the salt,

 

[wmas1960]

Was just looking into this myself. I have been going through a bunch of my hoard of clad, looking for special coins and found a handfull of pennies and a couple dimes that were covered with green corosion and other crud. These were not MDing finds. Just pocket change that I picked up here and there.

I started by just soaking them the last couple days in dish soap to take the crap off but no real good. I then thought of when I clean our pots and pans. I have a set of Emeril Ware that is stainless and has a copper rim (Plate) in the bottom of the pans. I recalled how Barkeepers Friend cleans the copper very bright, almost on contact. So, I poured a little of the powder in a small pint sized storage container and threw the pennies in there. As I suspected, in a matter of several minutes, they started to get very bright. Some of the ones that were a little corroded but not too crusted over, cleaned up real good. Almost like new. Others, I still have soaking a little as the crust is a little heavier.

Now, I should say, I would never use this on any coin that I know is somewhat precious. I don't know if it is acceptable or will harm the coins. After cleaning the first batch that came out, I rinsed them real well under cold running water and dried them off. Among the coins I found one penny that was, originally, so bad that I couldn't find a date. It turned out to be a 1962. Another had sort of a reddish tone to it and turned out to date to the 60s also. A later year though. As the reddish color started to dissappear, I rinsed it to not clean it any further. The 1962 came out bright as new.

As I said, I did this as a test as I figured the coins just would get cleaned to be put back into circulation. I wouldn't think of it if I knew the coin(s) were collectable. I then went online to find what was acceptable and if there was any mention elsewhere on Barkeepers. I stumbled accross a couple sites that mentioned using an acid and salt. The sites I found seem to be directed to school kids and science experiments. Vinegar and Lemon Juice turned out to be the acids of choice. I didn't see any mention of the results. Perhaps I will try that. There was no mention, at least that I saw, about Barkeepers Friend.

 

[Southcacalaky]

I think tumblers are fine just to get them back into circulation, HH Art