Cleaning coins?

[JB]

what is the best way to clean coins which have been sitting in salt water with corrosion?

 

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[JohninCT]

use a rock tumbler if they are modern coins. Even a cheap one will work. Put small stones or pebbles in it with soapy water and check it once an hour, continue till coins are clean enough for spending. On collectible and old coins, it can be bad to clean them. Unless you know someone who can tell you if it is a valuable coin or just a common silver coin which only has silver value. Cleaning a valuable coin wrong, can destroy its value.

 

[southern gent]

I've used solution methods on a few salty silvers, but as was said it can ruin the value. The easiest/ best way that I've found is rock salt and a 12v power supply. Use a plastic tub, 6"X10" works well. Put a layer of rock salt in the bottom, lay the coin(s) , place a layer of rock salt over them. Make two copper wire electrodes long enough to reach the bottom of the tub. Place the electrodes in along the tub wall about 4" apart and connect + to one - to the other. Keep a close eye on them since different metals react differently, as well as differing coatings. Good luck. HH! Chris

 

[lab rat]

I clean mine up in a rock tumbler as well, but first separate out the pennies from the nickels from the clad. ?Otherwise the zinc pennies will turn everything else a nasty dark color. ?You can use clean beach sand in lieu of pebbles if you like. ?Don't use soap. ?For really crusty coins I will toss in a piece of steel wool and a few bits of aluminum foil. ?The aluminum helps keep the oxidation down so they don't turn color when you dry them off. ?But if you use steel wool, watch out for thin slivers when you take the coins out. ?Rinse in a bucket of fresh water (I do this in a sieve) and dry them with a clean old towel you don't care much about. ?Also watch you don't overload your tumbler-- coins are heavier than an equal volume of rocks, and too much weight can burn out your motor.

 

[TMM]

Anybody ever tried using a shell casing vibrating cleaner? They are used to clean brass shell casings by people (like me) that reload their own pistol and rifle ammo.The media is usually ground walnut shells, (although there are others to use), that is inpregnated with rouge. This sits in a large plastic tub that is vibrated by the unit's motor at a pretty good clip. Does a real good job of cleaning brass casings, should work well on coins, I would think. I'm new to metal detecting (White's XLT), and haven't tried it myself, yet.

Just a thought.

 

[southern gent]

Vibrating cleaners work pretty well. I've also used pecan shells, corn cob and other media in my tumble. The vibrating shell cleaners tend to send the coins to the bottom and don't use it for rings with stones. Chris