Cleaning Coins???

[Dreamweaver43]

Just want to know what you think the best way of cleaning off coins. I notice that many of the posts have beautiful, near perfect coins. I have a rock tumbler, but many of my coins (clad) seem to be very dark or stained after cleaning.

Thoughts

Dreamweaver..............the NFG

 

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[wmas1960]

Regarding the issue of patina and to clean or not to clean, I am in agreement also. If a coins is of obvious age and value, I wouldn't overly clean it. Leaving it in it's natural aged patina is best. The coins I referred to were coins that were so bad that I felt that they couldn't be spent or put back into cirulation. I don't know how they got that way but it seems some had gotten wet at one time. A few were kind of stuck together with a greenish pasty corrosion or something. Incidentally, they were all pennies except for 2 dimes. All were, what appeared to be, modern clad. One coin turned out to be an early 60s penny but when I put it in the Barkeepers Friend, it was so bad I couldnt decern the date. All I saw was part of the Lincoln Memorial on the back. When I took all the coins out and rinsed them, I set them on the table and it stood out among the brighter higher polished looking newer coins. It was a softer finish and a deeper or richer color but clean as new. I looked at it through a lupe and saw the date. I would agree, that coin would have been better kept in a dark brown color. However, choice being crusted over, unreadable and green corrosion all over it, or shiny, I guess shiny is better.

The suggestions I have made definately apply to common coins that are being cleaned for reuse in spending. Not something I would do with a candidate for a collection.

 

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[Southcacalaky]

It's really a matter of preference, I don't use a self service machine. I take the time to clean them in a rock tumbler, As long as there are no key dates, HH, Art...

 

[Dave N Japan]

I USE A GRINDER AND SANDPAPER on my SILVER AND GOLD COINS! HAHAHA... OK>>>OK>>> Don't Band Me! I get goose bumps just thinking about it!

 

[ringding]

I throw those pitted nicked pennies in the penny tray next to the cash register at convenience stores.

 

[goldencoin]

Does anyone here have a ultrasonic cleaning.....
Offtopic:
I wonder if all our grandkids will continue to read all the stuff we put up here...i wonder if all this stuff will be here in a hundred years... two hundred years.....that would be weird

HH
-GC

 

[mlw67]

When I was cleaning clad with a rock tumbler, I used the vinegar and salt recipe, along with a good dose of aquarium gravel. That worked really well, except that you CANNOT have zinc pennies in there or they will do strange and unusual things both to themselves and to the other coins.

 

[ringfinder]

I guess I'm just an old guy that believes that if I take a coin or coins
back to a bank, they should be clean. I always clean my clad coins
when I return them to the bank. The first thing I think of when I see a
dirty coin at a store, is that some lazy detector guy didn't clean his
coins before he returned them to the bank, or just gave out dirty
coins from his change.

I have been cleaning my coins with a solution of 2/3 cup of table salt
with enough 5% white vinegar to make a one quart of solution.

Make sure that you clean clad pennies by themselves and clad nickles,dimes,
quarters and clad half dollars by themselves. If you mix them, they will all
look like pennies.

P.S. If you would like this cleaning guide I have some that I can e-mail you.

I use a rock tumbler, remove the lid, fill the drum about half full of fine gravel and
1/2 to 2/3 full of clad coins. Pour enough vinegar and salt solution to cover coins.
Install the lid and tumble for around 10-20 min. depending how dirty the coins are.

Remove the lid and wash the coins in a screen and then put them back in the tumbler
and add a squirt of dishwashing liquid and tumble for around 30 min. till clean.

Take out of tumbler, dry the coins. I usually check and make sure there aren't
any double dies. Only found one so far so I know that they are out there. Roll
the coins and take them back to the bank.

Please, Please to keep our hobby safe for future hunters, only take clean coins back to the bank!!

HH, Ringfinder

 

[wmas1960]

When I was cleaning clad with a rock tumbler, I used the vinegar and salt recipe, along with a good dose of aquarium gravel. That worked really well, except that you CANNOT have zinc pennies in there or they will do strange and unusual things both to themselves and to the other coins.

Maybe that is the problem. Don't know why but, like I said, everything turned black.

 

[goldencoin]

There is no real nead to clean clad, in fact, it probably does more harm to the coins then good. The wear that a rock tumbler puts on a coin is bad for the future value of the coin (if any), Also, people that i give the coins to don't care at all, they just take it and continue their job. Also, there will not be some "ban" on dirty coins, the government has to honor the coins in any condition. The stuff were puting on coins does more to wear them and the salt and vinigar treatment only turns them a wierd color(from my perspective). All that i use is just a wash with water and it's fine.

-GC

 

[ringfinder]

Well all I know is that I've been cleaning my coins for
several years now and the only bad coins I've seen
are the ones I find on the beach that salt water has
destroyed. I have cleaned thousands of coins and returned
them to my area banks. I have also found by cleaning
the coins you just might find that one double strike coin.
I did, but it only took me nearly 23 yrs. of cleaning coins to
find it.

I don't think there will be a "ban" on dirty coins either, the
point I was trying to make is that by cleaning your dirty coins
you make our hobby look better. We have enough people in
the hobby making it look bad. By not cleaning your coins, it just
puts another nail in our coffin. So many places have banned metal
detecting, why give them another reason.

HH, guys Ringfinder, member of the FMDAC, Silver Seekers and the Black Swamp Metal Detecting Clubs.

 

[Michigan Badger]

I USE A GRINDER AND SANDPAPER on my SILVER AND GOLD COINS! HAHAHA... OK>>>OK>>> Don't Band Me! I get goose bumps just thinking about it!

LOL! Dave...some of the methods I've used in the past were about like using a grinder and sandpaper.

 

[goldencoin]

ok, i misunderstood your message.....i don't even have a way to clean coins...the way i clean them with salt and vinger doesn't work

HH
-GC

 

[SomeGuy]

8)

 

[Michigan Badger]

8)

Hey, that's really a great picture and article! I can use that one...thanks!

 

[Dave N Japan]

Yes Love the story of the guy at the hotel!!! A+++