Cleaning clad (best way how)

[holepuncher]

What is the best way to clean clad so you don't get to much guff when you want to spend it?

 

[Loco-Digger]

The best way I found is using a tumbler with lemon juice an a couple tablespoons of salt. Put you nickels, dime, & quarters in the first batch, and just cover them with lemon juice and then add the salt. Tumble for about 30 minutes, and you can reuse the same concoction for the pennies. I save all my coins and roll them up throughout the season after they are tumbled. I make sure to put the shiny ones on the ends of the rolls and then deposit them into my hobby account. My hobby account is at a different bank than the family account and I have PayPal attached to it to aid in buying accessories or other hobby related items.

 

[Ogre1190]

Exactly what Loco said. ⬆

 

[Professor of Engineering]

What Loco-Digger said! I use the double tumbler from Harbor Freight!

 

[bravobob]

You can use vinegar in place of lemon juice. Cheaper.
The real nasty ones i feed to the coin star machine.

 

[HighVDI]

Same here as POE. HF dual canister. If you do buy one be sure to oil the bearings or it will not work for you. Mine quit spinning after 15 minutes and i fiddled with the belt then as a last resort oiled the ends of the shafts and presto.

I just use water and a squirt of dish soap with aquarium gravel. Seems to do the job.

 

[fistfulladirt]

My financial institutions will not take rolled coin. My credit union has a nice fast counter to use at no charge to me.

 

[sprailroad]

I also tumble the "Clad" dimes and quarters in a rock tumbler, I cover the coins with lemon juice, with two teaspoons of salt, tumble about two hours, and rinse. Nickels I run by themselves, same way. I found that the copper edge from the clad coins will often turn the nickels a pink. Don't know why, the "Clad" coin's are Nickel/copper, but that's just what happens. Learned the hard way with a couple of Buffalo nickels.

 

[Toecutter]

I use a cheapo tumbler, Dawn dish soap and water, tumble for a hour or so and call it good, takes dirt off but still dark from tarnish.

Im going to try the lemon juice and salt trick next time though

 

[haxor]

Just leave in pockets when doing laundry; multitask!

 

[Loco-Digger]

Just leave in pockets when doing laundry; multitask!

My wife would take those as her tip for doing the laundry.

 

[Dennis1209]

Like many others I use a rock tumbler with some plastic aquarium gravel, a couple drops of Dawn and a pinch or baking soda to keep the gas pressure down in the barrel. After 4-6 hours they usually come out pretty nice and spendable. The Zincons I find I usually toss for obvious reasons. The Coinstar's and bank change counters hate those zincons that came out of the ground. If they want to debase and devalue our coinage any further they will have to go to plastic or wood.

 

[sprailroad]

I use a cheapo tumbler, Dawn dish soap and water, tumble for a hour or so and call it good, takes dirt off but still dark from tarnish.

Im going to try the lemon juice and salt trick next time though

Toecutter, I will also add that I will tumble about 100 dimes in the barrel, and about 50 quarters in another. Of course the clad quarters and dimes can be tumbled together, but I don't exceed 100, they need room to move. I use just enough lemon juice to cover the coins, two teaspoons of salt, and of course the rock stuff. For me about two hours works really well. I picked this up right here on treasure net, I used other stuff before, but they still came out brown, clean, but brown. Now?, clean but with shine. I DO NOT do the same with penny's, it would seem as though I was making a bomb or something, the mix of lemon juice, salt, copper with a little zinc, well, the barrel swelled up like a large softball ready to explode, caught it in time, took it outside, and when I loosened the top? I looked like some kind of cartoon going on. Don't do that.

 

[Dennis1209]

Toecutter, I will also add that I will tumble about 100 dimes in the barrel, and about 50 quarters in another. Of course the clad quarters and dimes can be tumbled together, but I don't exceed 100, they need room to move. I use just enough lemon juice to cover the coins, two teaspoons of salt, and of course the rock stuff. For me about two hours works really well. I picked this up right here on treasure net, I used other stuff before, but they still came out brown, clean, but brown. Now?, clean but with shine. I DO NOT do the same with penny's, it would seem as though I was making a bomb or something, the mix of lemon juice, salt, copper with a little zinc, well, the barrel swelled up like a large softball ready to explode, caught it in time, took it outside, and when I loosened the top? I looked like some kind of cartoon going on. Don't do that.

Hence the "baking soda". Been there done that

 

[holepuncher]

Thanks for the info. Guess I’ll give it a shot and see what happens.